Pros
Same as the other reviews.
Cons
All of the negative reviews are very accurate. BAT to this company is like Biden to the USA. The entire organization is not stable. Along with the perpetual decline in tobacco usage, the entire industry is under attack with regulation from the federal government. More than half of our products are in the governments hands and could get banned at any time. This is the end game for the tobacco industry and especially field trade marketing for this company. Perhaps this is all you need to know when making an educated career decision… but there’s more. Upper Management is made up of mostly foreigners, especially Australians. The tobacco industry is all but eliminated in the Australian market so all the BAT executives from there quickly got leadership roles here. A single Region/State in the US does more business than all of Australia, so for them to come over and manage a vastly bigger and more complex market makes zero sense. Upper managements malicious business practices and strategy has completely ruined our reputation with our retail partners and we’re no longer the category advisors we use to be to our customers. Workload - There are too many initiatives, too many product launches that ultimately fail, too many last minute request that are constantly changing and everything is a “priority”. We are working at an unmanageable pace and it’s truly an understatement when it’s said that the workload is overwhelming. On top of the utterly ridiculous and tedious nonsense, you’ll manage overly complex pricing strategies that change monthly. Plus, due to so many territory vacancies, you’re asked to cover stores outside of your own 120+ stores. Depending on your territory, you're looking at 3000+ miles in drive time per month. All of this is due to BAT’s lack of knowledge and leadership skills in the US Market. They’re hiring people to work in the corporate office that have zero field experience or any experience in the tobacco industry. We used to have a cohesive unit between the corporate office and field personnel because they, themselves, were in the field at some point. They used to understand the realities on the ground… now it’s just “us vs them”. There is no job security and almost zero field promotions. BAT already laid off 1/3rd of the work force in the field and we’re certain they’re planning to do another restructure in 2023 with more layoffs.
