Despite the steep economic curve of the first months in business, around 82% of new firms survive past their twelve-month anniversary. However, by their tenth year, only around 35% of new businesses are still active — with the main reasons for closure being low sales, retirement and the sale of the business.
As these reasons suggest, the closure of a business is not always an “ending” but a transition. So in our age of technical and social progress, a “golden age of entrepreneurship” and new opportunities, it’s no surprise that businesses come and go.
But for those starting a business with the long view in mind, there is plenty of inspiration from family businesses that have lasted decades or even centuries. To that end, Payroll Prices has conducted manual research to find the oldest family business that is still operating in every country around the world.
What we did
We manually researched news reports on old businesses in each nation’s native language. We required that the companies are currently operating and the founding family still retains or has regained majority ownership.
Key findings
- The world’s oldest existing family business is Hōshi Ryokan, a hotel and spa in Japan founded in 718 AD.
- The oldest existing business in the U.S. is Avedis Zildjian Co., a drum equipment company established in Constantinople in 1623 and relocated to the U.S. in 1929.
- The UK’s oldest business is RJ Balson & Son (1515), a butcher shop that opened during the reign of King Henry VIII.
The family-run Japanese hotel-spa that’s over 1,300 years old
The world’s oldest family business still operating is Hōshi Ryokan, a hotel and spa in Komatsu, Japan’s Hokuriku region.
The original hotelier, Zengoro, established Hōshi Ryokan at the natural hot springs of Awazu Onsen in 718 AD as “a proper hot spring inn to soothe both the body and mind.” Embedded in nature and attuned to the changing seasons, Hōshi Ryokan has catered to timeless needs and pleasures for over 1,300 years.
The second-oldest is the Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli, the Marinelli Bell Foundry, in Italy. Now run by the 26th and 27th generations of founders, the business was started in the year 1000.
“It’s a job that dates back to the Middle Ages,” Pasquale Marinelli told Great Big Story. “And today we continue to work in the way they used to in the Middle Ages… It’s an art you carry within yourself and must pass on to those who come after you.”
17th-century drum cymbal maker is North America’s oldest family business
North America’s oldest family business is based in the U.S. — although it was established in Constantinople, the city now known as Istanbul in modern-day Turkey, in 1623.
The firm’s story began when 17th-century alchemist Avedis Zildjian was trying to fabricate gold but accidentally invented a “secret alloy” that proved perfect for drum cymbals. His family became cymbal smiths and the Avedis Zildjian Co. was born. By 1929, the only living family heir was already living in the U.S., so the company was moved to Quincy, Massachusetts, right in time to cater to the drumming needs of the Jazz Age. Avedis Zildjian Co. continues to manufacture and sell drum instruments and accessories to this day.
The country with the second-oldest “oldest family business” in North America is Mexico. “In 1758,” reads the company’s website, “José Antonio de Cuervo y Valdés was given a writ of land ownership by King Fernand VI to plant agave on his lands for producing tequila.” Jose Cuervo is now the world’s best-selling tequila brand, expanding production from 800,000 litres per year in 1781 to around 35 million litres sold in 2020.
Today, the company is primarily owned by the Beckmann family, a seventh-generation branch of the Cuervo family.
Historic hacienda is South America’s longest-running family firm
Hacienda Los Lingues is a 20,000-acre estate resort in the mountains outside San Fernando, and it’s South America’s oldest family business. Established some time after nobleman and writer Don Melchor Jufré del Águila came to the Valley of Santiago in 1599, the mud-and-straw buildings remain as they were first built, with renovations undertaken by historians to maintain fidelity to the hacienda’s original state.
Today, Hacienda Los Lingues belongs to Germán Claro Lira, the latest in an unbroken line of Don Melchor’s descendants to take the helm.
Suriname also has a pre-19th-century family business that’s still going strong. In 1768, German missionary Christoph Kersten founded the company now known as the Kersten Group as a commercial concern to fund his missionary activities.
The company diversified into a range of retail sectors over its first 100 years while playing a part in Suriname’s development and expanded internationally through the 19th century. Today, the Kersten Group pursues a range of commercial activities including construction, hospitality, motors and industrial equipment.
French chateau and English butchers among Europe’s heritage businesses
Europe’s oldest family-owned business is Italy’s Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli (see The family-run Japanese hotel-spa that’s over 1,300 years old, above).
Not far behind it arrived the 11th-century family estate and vineyard Château de Goulaine in the Loire Valley region of France, which is today crowned by the eponymous 16th-century castle. The Goulaine estate was bought by a Dutch banker in 1788, which saved it from falling in the French Revolution, and the family of the marquis de Goulaine repurchased it in 1858, since when it has remained in the original family’s hands.
Maintaining such a vast and historic premises is an ongoing business challenge, with one 20th-century patriarch forced to sell off a fleet of luxury cars — including a bulletproof, 16-cylinder 1931 Cadillac — to cover roof repairs.
The oldest family business in England and the UK is RJ Balson & Son. Established in 1515, just six years into the reign of King Henry VIII, this butcher shop is now in its 25th generation of family ownership, with a 26th ready to take over.
Present proprietor Richard Balson says the business has “survived wars, plagues, fires and floods” and credits hard work and good recipes for the firm’s longevity. The company is a member of the Tercentenarian Club, which requires family businesses to have survived for over 300 years — meaning they’ve survived “at least 47 recessions, a clutch of banking crises, stock market crashes, the start of the Industrial Revolution, the end of horse power, two World Wars [and] the defeat of Napolean [sic].”
Soap- and jewellery-makers among Asia’s oldest family businesses
Asia’s oldest family business is the Hōshi Ryokan hotel and spa in Japan (see The family-run Japanese hotel-spa that’s over 1,300 years old, above).
The second-oldest is a soap-making business established by the Jebeili family in Aleppo, Syria, in 1330. They have a converted stable for a factory, with the ground floor used to store the raw materials and 33 underground compartments to store the oils, which are blended by hand and ground with an animal-powered millstone.
“In the last 15 years, I’ve had to restore my soap factory twice,” Jebeili Family Soaps’ Hisham al-Jubaili told Al Jazeera. “The profession nearly vanished due to the war, earthquakes and displacement. But our passion kept us going.
“…The tradition is passed down from one generation to the next … I have a picture of my children playing with soap, and my father kept a picture of me as a child playing with soap, too.”
Iranian jewellery business Mozafarian traces its origins to 1821, when a Swiss clockmaker working in Persia fell in love and stayed to marry and diversify his business into gold- and silversmithing. The business is now in its sixth and seventh generation of family ownership.
“Our unique style and designs have evolved through years of knowledge and experience,” chairman and designer Abbas Mozafarian told Al Shindagah. “It has been perfected over the centuries and we have been fortunate to imbibe this wealth of expertise and craftsmanship that today gives us a sense of proportion, volume and design vocabulary.”
Australian farm established by First Fleet marine still going strong
The oldest operational family business in Oceania is Summerville Farm, established near Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, in 1808. “It all started with Daniel Stanfield, he came out as a marine on the First Fleet, on the ship Sirius,” previous owner Jim Thompson told ABC, referring to the British flagship of the first European fleet that came to colonise Australia.
The farm is presently owned by Jim Thompson’s sons, the seventh generation following Daniel Stanfield. “Generation eight is nearly all granddaughters but that doesn’t bother me,” says Thompson. “We’ve had two of the early generations have come through the ladies so it may keep going.”
New Zealand’s oldest is the P&K General Store in Martinborough in the South Wairarapa District. George Pain worked his business up from a wheelbarrow to a horse and cart before establishing his clothing company in a trading post shop in 1873. A Mr. Haycock and Mr. Kershaw joined him as business partners, and the fourth generation of Kershaws still run the store today — with P & K referring to Pain and Kershaw.
Eleventh-generation farmers helm Africa’s oldest family business
Africa’s oldest family business is Boplaas 1743 Estate, a farm company based near the town of Ceres, South Africa, that now holds diverse agricultural interests across the country. The original farm was established by Izaak van der Merwe in 1743 and remains home to 10th- and 11th-generation van der Merwes.
“For me, entering the business at the bottom of the ladder and in a very hands-on capacity proved quite impactful,” general manager Fanie van der Merwe told Tharawat Magazine. “I believe that’s the right way to join a business –experiencing the day-to-day at all levels and engaging in the work on a personal level.”
Youssef Hamoud founded his beverage business, Hamoud Boualem, in Algiers in 1878. Having worked in a factory producing citrus drinks, he concocted his own recipe combining extracts of lemon, orange and mandarin. But then he spent time working in a factory in France to gather the knowledge to establish his own firm.
After the firm struggled in the 1940s, the family lost control to colonial authorities — but was later able to buy back majority ownership. Despite struggles across the decades, Hamoud Boualem has thrived and expanded in the new millennium, and the company’s drinks remain household names in Algeria.
How to build a family business that lasts
Establishing or taking the reins of your family business can be a highly rewarding way to earn a living, build something to be proud of and strengthen family bonds. However, it comes with risks, so it is worth considering the following tips if you’d like the business to last across generations.
- Create a shared long-term vision. For full emotional and professional investment from your family partners, it is important to give them a creative stake in the business.
- Draw clear boundaries. Approach family, ownership and management as separate aspects of the business. Establish a family council to ringfence family interests and ensure that crossovers between the three aspects are planned and intentional.
- Be professional from the start. It’s easy to slip into bad habits when starting out, particularly when business meetings and family mealtimes are one and the same. Set policies, keep records, and evaluate skill sets: customers and other businesses will take you more seriously if you take your business seriously.
- Make a succession plan. One day, it will be time to step down, and it’s never too soon to start talking about and planning how to do so. Consider the transfer of assets and roles, and ensure the succeeding generation is trained and prepared as part of a comprehensive continuity plan.
In a few generations’ time, it could be your company that is celebrated as a healthy and longstanding family business.
Methodology
To discover the oldest family-owned business in every country, we manually researched news reports in each nation’s native language.
We required that the companies are currently operating and the founding family still retains the majority of the ownership. We allowed for companies to have switched ownership along their history if they are currently the property of the founding family.
Data is correct as of October 2025