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Who We Are...

convenience_store.gifThe Oklahoma Wholesale Marketers Association (OWMA) is a statewide trade association that has represented the wholesale distributors of Oklahoma for 69 years.  More than 92 percent of the member wholesale houses are small, family-owned businesses serving their own and neighboring communities in Oklahoma and surrounding states.

In the early days of the association, wholesalers sold primary tobacco and candy products.  Today they are widely diversified, offering products such as:

  • Dry, refrigerated and frozen groceries  
  • Beverages
  • Snack foods
  • Institutional foods
  • Paper products
  • Health and beauty care products
  • Automotive products
  • Cleaning supplies 

Our customers include:

  • Oil retailers
  • Convenience stores
  • Drug stores 
  • Mass merchandisers
  • Gift shops
  • Liquor stores
  • Military installations
  • Airports
  • Schools
  • Campgrounds 
  • Service organizations
  • Government agencies
  • Hospitals
  • Nursing homes
  • Motels
  • Restaurants
What We Do...
  • tobacco.gifTobacco distributors act as tax collectors for the state of Oklahoma, affixing the tax stamps we purchase from the state to the packages of cigarettes and other tobacco products we sell to the retailer, thus collecting the excise tax for the state.

  • The Oklahoma Wholesale Marketers Association actively monitors legislation at the state capitol, primary focusing on business issues.

  • The OWMA is also involved in supporting efforts to prevent youth from purchasing tobacco products.
Association News
Washington Report: Judge Hears Arguments in Cigarette Warning Labels Case
Saturday, February 04, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon already blocked enforcement of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) tobacco marketing and sale regulations, but the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested that he reverse that decision, the Legal Times reports.

(complimentsof NACs)

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Alabama Eyeing Cigarette Tax Increase
Thursday, January 05, 2012

Alabama Eyeing Cigarette Tax Increase  (compliments of NACS)
Lawmakers are firing up plans to raise the state’s 42.5-cents-per-pack cigarette excise tax.

 MONTGOMERY, AL – Alabama lawmakers have ushered in 2012 with two proposals to raise state cigarette taxes, one by 32.5 cents per pack and one by $1 per pack, the Birmingham News reports.

The proposals are aimed at chipping away at an estimated $400 million shortfall in the state’s general fund next fiscal year. 

State rep. Patricia Todd filed a bill that would raise the tax 32.5 cents per pack, an increase she estimated would generate $75 million a year in revenue for the state. She has proposed a cigarette tax increase every year since 2008, and each one has failed.

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FDA Issues New Graphic Warning Labels for Cigarettes
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Courtesy of AWMA

June 23, 2011

On June 21st the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued nine new graphic warning labels that will appear on every pack of cigarettes and all cigarette advertising in the U.S. beginning on October 22, 2012.  These new warning labels are required as part of the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act and represent the first new warning labels in almost 25 years.  The new labels depict graphic images, including a picture of a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat and a horribly diseased lung, and will cover half the front and back of every pack and 20 percent of each large ad.

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