The world’s oldest family companies

One hundred lessons in endurance from 17 countries

Is there any institution more enduring or universal than a family business? Professor William O’Hara, the pre-eminent expert on this subject, posed that rhetorical question in his recent book, Centuries of Success. He also provided his answer: “Before the multinational corporation, there was family business. Before the Industrial Revolution, there was family business. Before the enlightenment of Greece and the empire of Rome, there was family business.”

Since the mid-1990s, research by O’Hara and his associate Peter Mandel has provided the foundation for two of this magazine’s most popular features: “America’s Oldest Family Companies” (updated most recently in Spring 2003) and “The World’s Oldest Foreign Family Companies” (Spring 2002). But the list that follows is the most definitive of all. In it we’ve combined the two previous lists, added newly discovered companies, and weeded out businesses that no longer qualify. The result is a compilation of the world’s 100 oldest continuously family-owned firms—all firms that can indisputably claim to have outlasted governments, nations, cities and certainly once-mighty corporations.

All of the listed companies are at least 225 years old; four have lasted in the same family for more than a millennium. The very oldest remains Japanese temple-builder Kongo Gumi, founded in 578.

As we’ve noted before, this compilation is hardly scientific; it’s certainly not comprehensive or entirely accurate. It relies instead on the best information available to us. As in the past, readers are invited to pass along corrections or information that we may have missed.


* Denotes new addition.

1. Kongo Gumi
Construction/Osaka, Japan
Founded: 578
40th generation
www.kongogumi.co.jp
Prince Shotoku brought Kongo family members to Japan from Korea more than 1,400 years ago to build the Buddhist Shitennoji Temple, which still stands. Over the centuries, Kongo Gumi has participated in the construction of many famous buildings, including the 16th-century Osaka castle. Today the family continues to build and repair religious temples and manage general contracting from its Osaka headquarters. Current president is Toshitaka Kongo; his 51-year-old son, Masakazu Kongo, is waiting in the wings.

2. Hoshi Ryokan
Innkeeping/Komatsu, Japan
Founded: 718
46th generation
www.ho-shi.co.jp/jiten/Houshi_E/
According to legend, the god of Mount Hakusan visited a Buddhist priest, telling him to uncover an underground hot spring in a nearby village. The hot spring was found, and the priest requested that his disciple, a woodcutter’s son named Garyo Saskiri, build and run a spa on the site. His family, known as Hoshi, have run a hotel in Komatsu ever since; the current structure houses 450 people in 100 rooms. Zengoro Hoshi is the current patriarch.

3. Château de Goulaine
Vineyard, museum, butterfly collection/Haute Goulaine, France
Founded: 1000
http://chateau.goulaine.online.fr
The castle, owned by the Goulaine family, houses a rare butterfly collection in addition to a museum. It hosts various functions, including weddings. Wine is available for sale at the castle’s vineyards.

*4. Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli
Bell foundry/Agnone, Italy
Founded: c. 1000
Bell foundry founded in the small central Italian town of Agnone, high in the Appenine hills. Still uses the original wax techniques of its founders (a wax “false bell” is overlaid with the real thing); its bells toll in New York, Beijing, Jerusalem, South America and Korea, among other locations. Firm has 20 employees, including five members of the founding Marinelli family. Pasquale Marinelli is current managing director. A museum, opened in 1997, features the work of Pasquale’s brother, sculptor Ettore Marinelli.

5. Barone Ricasoli
Wine and olive oil/Siena, Italy
Founded: 1141
www.ricasoli.it
The Ricasoli barons were first given their land by the Republic of Florence; today their Brolio Estate covers about 3,600 acres. The family’s main focus is its wine production, although 26 acres of the estate are used for olive cultivation.

6. Barovier & Toso
Glass making/Murano Venezia, Italy
Founded: 1295
20th generation
www.barovier.com
The Barovier family produces crystalline glass, mother-of-pearl glass and gold-free cornelian red on Murano Island, about a ten-minute ferry ride from Venice. The Baroviers merged with the Toso family, who were also glassmakers on Murano Island, in 1936.

7. Hotel Pilgrim Haus
Innkeeping/Soest, Germany
Founded: 1304
www.pilgrimhaus.de
The Hotel Pilgrim Haus is operated by the Andernach family in the town of Soest, about 110 miles north of Frankfurt.

8. Richard de Bas
Paper/Ambert d’Auvergne, France
Founded: 1326
www.richarddebas.fr
Richard de Bas has a longstanding reputation for high-quality papers, which has led to many high-profile jobs. The company has supplied paper for limited-edition works by Braque and Picasso. It also operates a museum.

9. Torrini Firenze
Goldsmiths/Florence, Italy
Founded: 1369
www.torrini.com
Jacopus Torrini moved to Florence from his native village of Scarperia to forge armor for Florentine knights. His workshop later evolved into a goldsmith, creating jewels and other precious objects. Perhaps the family’s most valued possession is its secretive and exclusive “Oro Nativo” manufacturing process, a method of working with gold while retaining its most natural color.

10. Antinori
Wine/Florence, Italy
Founded: 1385
19th generation
www.antinori.it
The Antinori family has been in the wine business since Giovanni di Piero Antinori joined the Florentine Guild of Vintners more than 600 years ago. Marchese (or “Count”) Piero Antinori, and his three daughters currently oversee a system of vineyards in Italy, the U.S., Hungary, Malta and Chile that continue to be recognized by consumers and wine critics for their superior-quality Chiantis and other vintages. He sold 49% to British beer brewer Whitbred in 1983, later bought it back. The company has been housed in a Florentine palazzo since 1506.

11. Camuffo
Shipbuilding/Portogruaro, Italy
Founded: 1438
18th generation
The business began in Khanià, a Venetian port on the island of Crete. It was founded by a man locals called “Camuffi” but whose real name was El Ham Muftì. The family has supplied boats to Mohammed the Second, the Venetian Republic, Napoleon, the Asburg Imperial and the Royal Italian navies. Experts refer to a Camuffo boat as “the Stradivarius of the sea.”

12. Baronnie de Coussergues
Wine/Montblanc, France
Founded: 1495
16th generation
www.henokiens.com/index_baronnie_gb.php
When King Charles VIII began selling royal property in France to pay off some of his expenses, Pierre Raymond de Sarret bought the estate known as Coussergues. Today the vineyard produces a wide variety of wines, including Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, Viogniers, Cabernet Francs, Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons. The Sarret family sells 1.5 million bottles a year and has won numerous gold medals for its wines.

13. Grazia Deruta
Ceramics/Turin, Italy
Founded: 1500
The company produces majolica, a special type of ceramic that pre-dates the 13th century. Current CEO Ubaldo Grazia has expanded the company’s business into the U.S. market and has produced three exclusive designs for Henri Bendel. Grazia has also done work for other major department stores and labels, such as Neiman-Marcus and Tiffany.

14. Fabbrica D’Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A.
Firearms/Gardone, Italy
Founded: 1526
14th generation
www.beretta.it
Bartolomeo Beretta’s world-class gun-maker is now a Hollywood favorite; its guns appear in the James Bond series, among other films. Beretta’s reputation for quality craftsmanship enabled the company to wrest a $56 million U.S. armed forces contract away from competitor Colt Industries. Beretta is the weapon of choice of other law-enforcement agencies around the world, such as the Italian Carabinieri, French Gendarmes and Texas Rangers. The company also has earned distinction for its line of hunting weapons. Ugo Gussalli Beretta is the company’s current president.

*15. William Prym GmbH & Co.
Copper, brass, haberdashery/Stolberg, Germany
Founded: 1530
www.prym.com
Goldsmith Wilhelm Prym started a brass and copper manufacturing business in Aachen in 1530. In 1642, the Protestant Prym family lost its guild rights in the Catholic city of Aachen and moved to Stolberg. In the 19th century, Prym developed the first finished products made of brass, iron and steel and later manufactured the first metal haberdashery products to be made mechanically. Michael Prym (born 1943) and Axel Prym (born 1950) are among the current company managers.

16. John Brooke & Sons
Woolens/Huddersfield, United Kingdom
Founded: 1541
15th generation
www.yorkspark.co.uk
The company, founded by John Brooke, has provided fabrics for British troops (Battle of Trafalgar, World War II), French troops and Russian military personnel. In the 19th century it had 220 looms and 900 employees, down to 280 by 1969. Today it’s headed by Mark Brooke and his brother Massimo Brooke. Mark has changed the company’s focus within the past decade, abandoning manufacturing and instead creating an entrepreneurial development park in the firm’s old mill buildings.

17. Codorniu
Wine/Saint Sadurní d’Anoia, Spain
Founded: 1551
www.codorniu.es
Jaime Codorniu acquired the company in 1551, beginning centuries of family ownership. In 1976 King Juan Carlos I declared the Codorniu estate a national historic and artistic monument. The estate is visited by 200,000 people every year and produces about 60 million bottles of wine annually.

18. Fonjallaz
Wine/Lavaux, Switzerland
Founded: 1552
13th generation
www.fonjallaz-vins.ch
Pierre Fonjallaz began the family business when he “devoted himself to the growing of the vine,” as the label on a bottle of Fonjallaz wine will tell you. The company is now headed by Patrick Fonjallaz.

19. von Poschinger Manufaktur
Glassmaking/Frauenau, Germany
Founded: 1568
13th generation
www.fonjallaz-vins.ch
The von Poschinger glassworks in Germany began in 1568 when Joachim Poschinger took ownership of a glass factory near Frauenau, near the Czech border. Today the business is divided into three areas—farming, forestry and glass works—though glassmaking is still the focal point of family business affairs.

20. Hacienda Los Lingues
Ranch/San Fernando, Chile
Founded: c. 1575
15th generation
www.loslingues.cl
The Angostura Estate, located in Chile’s Central Valley 78 miles south of Santiago, was originally granted by royal decree of Spanish King Felipe II to Don Melchor Jufré del Aguila for merit in the arts of war and fine writing. Currently dedicated to the hotel business. Named best wine valley in the world by Wine Enthusiast magazine; has a strategic agreement with Viña Los Vascos (Domaines Barons de Rothschild [Lafite]) under which Viña Los Vascos produces, bottles and labels a selection of five wines under the trademarks Hacienda Los Lingues and Los Lingues. It’s also the home of one of the most prestigious horse stables in the Americas: the Aculeo Stable, which features horses brought to Spain by the Moors in 711 and later brought to the New World by the Spanish Conquistadors. Family member Germán Claro Lyon is the general manager.

21. Wachsendustrie Fulda Adam Gies
Candles, wax figures/Fulda, Germany
Founded: 1589
Maker of candles and wax figures still operated by the founding Gies family.

22. Berenberg Bank
Banking/Hamburg, Germany
Founded: 1590
www.berenberg.de
One of the few remaining independently owned banks in Germany.

23. R. Durtnell & Sons
Construction/Kent, United Kingdom
Founded: 1591
12th generation
www.durtnell.co.uk
Founder John Durtnell and his brother Brian built their first house in 1593. It still stands and is occupied to this day. The company, based in Kent, is extremely versatile; its projects have included the Royal Military Academy, Chartwell House (Winston Churchill’s home) and Buckingham Palace.

24. J.P. Epping of Pippsvadr
Grocers/Germany
Founded: 1595

25. Eduard Meier
Shoes/Munich, Germany
Founded: 1596
13th generation
www.edmeier.de
The company today is run by Peter Eduard Meier and his sister Brigitte. Its product line consists of about 4,500 items.