Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV), headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, was founded in 1918. Universal is the parent company for businesses categorized on this website as Universal Leaf, Universal Ingredients and Universal Enterprises. Collectively, we conduct business in more than 30 countries on 5 continents and employ more than 20,000 permanent and seasonal workers.
Our business includes procuring, financing, processing, packing, storing and shipping tobacco and other agri-products. We are the world’s leading global leaf tobacco supplier, and leaf tobacco is our primary business and source of revenues. We also recently started a sweet potato processing business and intend to expand into other agricultural products processing. We do not manufacture any consumer products. Instead, we support consumer product manufacturers throughout the world by selling them processed raw products and performing related services for them.
Through various global subsidiaries and unconsolidated entities, we purchase, process and sell a variety of flue-cured, burley dark air-cured and oriental tobaccos. Universal Leaf provides agronomy support, research and financing to tobacco farmers but does not manufacture consumer tobacco products.
Our strategic plan involves a measured evaluation of diversification opportunities in the agro-business space that allow us to take advantage of core competencies gained over our more than 100- year history, including:
In addition to our traditional leaf tobacco business, Universal has also established a presence in the value-added agricultural space. These businesses offer products and services ranging from traditional laboratory testing of raw agricultural products to the production and testing of agricultural byproducts that allow us to take advantage of the possibilities presented by evolving new markets.
Like our other businesses, we continually keep an eye open for new opportunities to add to our product and service offerings in the Enterprise arena but only those consistent with our core competencies.