Treatment of aromatic carboxylic acids and substituted toluenes with a mixture of sodium bromate and sodium hydrogen sulfite in a two-phase system gave the corresponding esters in good yield. The intermediate alpha-brominated toluene was formed by the in situ generated hypobromous acid. The alpha-bromotoluene underwent an intermolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction with aromatic carboxylic acids present in the reaction mixture to afford the corresponding esters. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.