Mike Oberschmidt

Universal Leaf Tobacco Company

Universal is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and is the leading global leaf tobacco supplier. Tobacco sourcing and processing has been the Company's principal focus since its founding in 1918. The largest portion of the Company's business involves procuring and processing flue-cured, burley, and dark air-cured leaf tobacco for manufacturers of consumer tobacco products. Today, we are a global business-to-business agri-products supplier to consumer product manufacturers, that sources and processes leaf tobacco and plant-based ingredients. Through our plant-based ingredients platform, we provide a variety of value-added manufacturing processes to produce high-quality, specialty vegetable- and fruit-based ingredients as well as botanical extracts and flavorings for human and pet food end markets. Universal conducts business in more than 30 countries on five continents and employs over 25,000 permanent and seasonal workers. Domestically, Universal employs over 1,000 permanent and seasonal workers, and its revenues ending March 31, 2022, were slightly over $2.1 billion.