U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company

U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (formerly United States Tobacco Company) manufactures dipping tobacco and is a subsidiary of Altria.

Its corporate headquarters are located in Richmond, Virginia, and it maintains factories in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, Franklin Park, Illinois, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Copenhagen and Skoal are the company's leading brands, and each represent more than USD$1 billion per year in retail sales. It also sells similar products, for a lower price, under the brand names Red Seal and Husky. It also produced Rooster up until 2009, when Philip Morris decided to discontinue it. The company also produces the dry snuff brand Bruton.

Skoal was one of the first moist tobacco manufactures to be brought to market as Snus in the US. "Skoal Bandits", released in 1983, were marketed in the UK in the 1980s, but the carcinogenic tobacco pouches were banned amid public protest. This product has a small amount of tobacco in a pouch with a thin outer membrane and resembles a tiny tea bag. Skoal Bandits was invented by UST's marketing division and the manufacturing process was conceived by Gene Paules of UST and the process was automated by David Westerman of The Automation Center, Inc., Nashville, TN.

Parent company UST was purchased by Altria Group, which now includes Phillip Morris, John Middleton Company and US Smokeless Tobacco.