Stakeholder Dialogues

As our Vision Statement says, Reynolds American is “totally committed to responsible growth." A valuable tool in achieving that vision is getting an unvarnished view of what a broad array of stakeholders believe about our companies, our positions, our actions and our relationships with those stakeholders.

The views of our stakeholders often challenge our own internal perception of our behavior and our companies. And their perspectives, which they share with great candor and passion, provide us with important insights that help guide us in our quest to continually improve the way in which we operate our businesses.

To that end, Reynolds American has been conducting dialogues with a wide variety of stakeholders across the United States since the company began publicly trading in 2004. From 2004 to 2007, RAI conducted a total of 25 dialogues with stakeholders ranging from suppliers and retail customers to tobacco growers and public-health groups. During 2008 and 2009, the company conducted an additional 11 stakeholder dialogues, using the same format as in previous years:

• Topics for discussion were largely selected by the stakeholders, and open, honest comments were encouraged.
• Employees of Reynolds American and its operating companies who work in an area expected to be of interest to the stakeholder participants attended and participated in the dialogues as appropriate.
• All dialogue participants were promised confidentiality.
• Each session was facilitated by a professional moderator.
• An independent, outside auditor attended each dialogue and will report on the process and summarized comments to be included in this update at a later date.

During 2008 and 2009 Reynolds American conducted several dialogues with new stakeholder groups. These included two dialogues with stakeholders interested in environmental issues and three dialogues with general community representatives in Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Ore. All of these stakeholder groups added new insights for Reynolds American and the company appreciated the participation of all the stakeholders.

Reynolds American also conducted dialogues with several stakeholder groups who had participated in previous dialogues, including public-health officials, tobacco growers, R.J. Reynolds’ suppliers, owners/operators of convenience retail outlets and a group drawn from the Bangor, Maine community. Many of these groups were meeting for the third or fourth time since 2004 and have provided valuable and continuing insights to Reynolds American’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.

Summaries of the dialogues conducted in 2006 and 2007 appear in RAI’s 2008 CSR report. Summaries of each of the stakeholder dialogues conducted since the previous CSR report will be posted here in the coming weeks.