Premier Manufacturing is the primary hub for product distribution for the Consumer Products division of U.S. Tobacco Cooperative Inc. (USTC). Premier provides high-quality tobacco products to the adult consumer made with the finest flue-cured tobacco grown in the U.S. by our owner-members.
Premier is a Subsequent Participating Member (SPM) to the Master Settlement Agreement (1999 Signatory). As an SPM member, Premier adheres to all the federal guidelines for product warnings on packaging, marketing only to adult consumers and following regulations on how to market them. Premier is allowed to sell in all 50 states and pays all federal and state taxes.
Key Points
- All of our cigarette brands are American owned, American grown and American manufactured – We proudly state “A Product of US Farmers®”
- We can develop destination brands for retail store chains
As such we are able to develop strong relationships with large national distributors throughout the U.S. such as Core-Mark and Eby-Brown, as well as independent, regional or large retail chains such as Cumberland Farms/EG Group, Nouria Energy and Stewarts Shop. Premier has a national sales staff that is able to provide sales and service support and create sales and merchandising programs with point-of-sale materials to maintain high retail visibility of the brands.
At Premier Manufacturing we are able to develop control label brand relationships with large national and regional retail chains since government regulations make it difficult for retailers to develop their own destination brand. The Consumer Products group has been successful at entering into agreements with sophisticated retail chains, giving them brand exclusivity within a region and essentially their own private label.
In April 2016, Premier Manufacturing signed a long-term agreement with Circle K, one of the largest convenience store chain in the U.S. with approximately 8,000 locations, to be the exclusive retailer of Traffic cigarettes. While Premier Manufacturing owns and retains all rights to the Traffic trademark, under the agreement sales are exclusive to Circle K.