Commonwealth Brands Reviews

Pros

6% match on 401k
employee sharesave program
employer paid insurance premium
free use of company vehicle (and gas)
pretty good pay
decent amount of paid holidays
the other TM's and some ASM's are great to work with

Cons

Since the merger with Altadis this company doesn't seem to have a direction. We went through two CEO's in 2011. They have way too many ineffective promotions going on at one time and they fully expect you to be able to balance all of them. All of the new management is coming from Imperial so the culture is completely shifting. Company morale is horrible as the bonus structure is laughable. All of the promotions that were given when the company expanded looked eerily like nepotism. We're already in a declining industry and now we get hamstrung with pushing moderate sellers with crappy promos.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't even know who you guys are anymore (literally). How about listening to the people that are actually in the field doing the leg work? Can we possibly NOT be 18 months behind the rest of the industry in everything: from packaging to promos?

Pros

The check clears every two weeks

Cons

Senior management couldn't create a successful business plan that would give them a passing grade at the local community college

Advice to Senior Management

Resign...Worst management I have ever seen in my professional life.

Pros

The salary and benefits are good

Cons

Total lack of respect for field sales
Upper management thinks they know it all
They have run commonwealth into the ground and now
Doing the same with the cigar side of the business
The territory managers and some Asms know more about
The business then the upper mgrs sitting behind a desk
We use to Sell now we are told to promote 1 item
At a time make a ton of calls-they don't want quality calls
Just in and out.in one area they care more about hours worked
Then the quality of work.we are micro managed to death.
I have never seen moral so bad
You have a sales director that sends reports that always
Say what you are not doing well.
Hopefully some of these people will be replaced and
Get in somebody that cares.

Advice to Senior Management

Start respecting your sales team ,as they work hard and
They do actually know the business and know what works in
Their area-not one size fits all sales

Pros

Lots of good hearted people, nice benefits that include company mini van, 401K 100% match up to 6%, company paid medical. HR department is great!

Cons

Leadership is terrible. This company has no vision or solid grip on what they are doing. Imperial Tobacco from the UK owns Commonwealth and they are driving all of our brands into their deep, cold graves. One week they will tell the sales force to focus on one priority then the next week they will switch it to something else. Bonus scheme is pathetic. Nothing is ever clear and nobody has answers for anything. Management gives no recognition for hard work, all they care about is themselves. Also, too many useless meetings that are time wasting.

If you are considering working for this company, I would highly suggest you treat this as temporary. If you can, look somewhere else...I KNOW I AM!

Advice to Senior Management

Get a college education and if you say you have one then go back! Hire Americans to lead this company. Fire all people running sales and marketing.

Pros

100% 401K match
Full paid medical benefits and excellent benefits package
Good amount of paid days off
Amazing co-workers and good friends

Cons

There are too many to list. This job used to be my solace, but no longer, now it is just a job. Since Imperial Tobacco has taken over the reins we have gone progressively down hill. There was once a wonderful sense of camarderrie and family, but the Brits have absolutely no clue what that is about, anymore than they know how to do business in this country. First we were thrown together with RBA and that was a fiasco and now we have had "cross training" with the Altadis personnel and that is another debacle.

Since taking over sales of cigarettes "our bread and butter" have plummeted, and they just continue to come out with one ridiculous promotion after the other. They are non-reactionary and then they wonder why sales are in the toilet.

We were a lean, mean selling machine and we made buckets of money and ever since ITG has come in and taken over the helm, we are continuously losing money and they wonder why.

Just ask us and we will tell you. We are top-heavy with a lot of 6 figure salaries. Our marketing department (which CBI had none) has given birth to marketing departments. It is a joke!!!

They send out pallets of POS, instead of asking what we need - if they only knew how much went into the trash. but then again, they are the "Brits" - stiff upper lip and all that!!!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Ask anyone of your sales people who were hear before the "British invasion" how to make money and we would be glad to tell you.

Pros

The only two pros about working at Commonwealth is the excellent benefits and compensation package. There is no other reason to work here.

Cons

The whole entire face of the company changed when Imperial Tobacco bought it. I have worked in this industry for 20 years and have never seen a more poorly managed company. 80% of the people in management don't belong there. The standards for being a manager are not very high. There are more managers and useless departments (Business Intelligence, Marketing, Training etc) than you can shake a stick out. I have never seen a company waste so much money on useless promotions and the point of sale material that accompany them. If they did away with the dead weight, thay could offer the retailer and consumer a decent product with a decent price instead of constantly raising prices to cover the costs of stupidity. The US is in a recession. Our products are becoming unaffordable.

Advice to Senior Management

This is not the UK. Spend sometime in the US and find out what is really going on before it is too late. Bring back the person who put CBI on the map.

Pros

Great people to work with.

Cons

No communication from top to bottom or bottom to top.

Pros

Excellent sales force, with ASM's that care. People who want to be the best.

Cons

A TOP HEAVY COMPANY OF KOOL-AID DRINKERS IN UPPER MANAGEMENT!
If you are a sales professional with a good work ethic and people skills... they will crush all that is good in you. Sales do not matter. Product movement doesn't matter. Data entry is the core of this companies focus. They think their biggest competitor is Phillip Morris... they are delusional. They are fighting their way into the cellar. No promotions to help the sales force compete and no interest in hearing anything that their territory managers have for suggestions.

They have taken two brands that they have lost focus on and are trying to make something happen. And the brands that are moving, they just killed with one of the largest price increases in the industry.( excluding the governments butchering of the golden goose) They are in the process of putting themselves out of business

Advice to Senior Management

Find somebody that can read and decipher the data entered into the computers on a a daily basis. Fire whoever read the data and told you to increase the price on your best sellers$1.87 per carton.
When you have your worker bees in a meeting, let them ask you the hard questions and work on some great answers. Not wanting to here the raw truth may be easier, but it will be your downfall!

Pros

decent pay and benefits and vacation time

Cons

This was a great company like family and then the british bought this company and ruined it.The customer service now sucks.They dont care about there employees just profits!! The management from top to bottom are idiots.They dont react to the competition and the are hanging commonweath out to dry.This company going down. Move over circuit city here comes commonwealth!!

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to your sales force that knows whats going on in the field and treat your employees with repect

Pros

Compensation and benies, yes that is it.

Cons

Twenty five years in the business and have always been respected in the field. I love my customers and selling, ah yes selling. Where did that go. We are administrative robots. Takes so much time with data entry, (which there has NEVER been any competitive programs that have resulted from all this info), that we have no time to sell, and what we are selling is not selling. Hey folks falling sales are not from out of stocks, its from products that are already in the store sitting on the shelves that are not selling. Wake up. This company has the mentality that get it in the stores and we are successful. Successful is being competitive and generating sales thru the consumers. For someone who is motivated to do more with the results you personally see, this is not the job for you. They just have no clue and you can really become mentally depressed with the nonsense that this company continually operates with. I would love nothing better than to go down the street and sell, sell sell. They will just not have any part of it. Imperial wake up. Potential employees run, I just can't say enough here to make you understand.

Advice to Senior Management

Is there anyone there???