Reynolds Aluminum origin in Reynolds Tobacco cigarette foil

Why Alcoa only had ~50% of the aluminum foil market. Used to illustrate vertical integration logic from an adjacent industry.

On the eve of World War II, Alcoa had a monopoly in bauxite — which is the raw material for the Hall cell — and alumina, which is an even purer material, and making pure aluminum. Alcoa owned the business in the United States; they were the only ones in the business. Fabricated aluminum products: on average, foil was only fifty percent. Who was the other big foil producer in aluminum? Reynolds. And why did Reynolds go into the foil business? Reynolds is part of Reynolds Tobacco — or was part of Reynolds Tobacco — the Reynolds family of Richmond, Virginia. They needed something to wrap their cigarettes in, and they decided we use enough foil we might as well start our own aluminum foil business. So Reynolds Aluminum is a spin-off of Reynolds Tobacco.