W.D. & H.O. Wills & Co
Henry Overton Wills set up his original “Wills, Watkin & Co” tobacco shop on Castle Street in Bristol along with his then partner, Samuel Watkins. Watkins retired in 1789 at which point the company became simply “Wills & Co”, but was renamed as soon as 1791 when Wills merged with the business of Peter Lilly, to form “Lilly, Wills & Co”. Further renamed in 1793 as “Lilly & Wills”, it remained thus until Lilly retired in 1803.
In 1826 Wills’s sons William Day Wills and Henry Overton Wills took on the business from their father, at which point it was renamed “W.D. & H.O. Wills” William Day Wills died in a carriage accident in 1865, but the company name remained the same.
From there the company experienced rapid growth as the popularity of smoking grew, with factories and offices being opened all over Bristol, as well as in Newcastle, Glasgow, Swindon, Dublin and also in Australia in 1900.
However, the early 1900’s “Tobacco Wars” which were brought on by The American Tobacco Company (“American”) building a factory in the UK to avoid paying import taxes, caused many UK manufacturers to join forces under “The Imperial Tobacco Company” (“Imperial”) brand brought an end to Wills’s independence.
Imperial and American agreed a joint venture in 1902 where they would not trade in each other’s domestic markets. This was known as The British American Tobacco Company (“British American”). Both American and Imperial continued to operate independently outside of British American. American sold its’ share in the joint venture in 1911, though Imperial remained invested.
Following numerous changes, re-brands, take-overs, mergers etc since that time, the company still exists, now going by the name of “Imperial Brands”
