Savour International

The oldest and the richest, the good and the bad: a round tour of the colourful landscape of the family-owned business.

 

Fonjallaz SA in Epesses, Switzerland, has the honour of being the country's oldest family-owned company. In 1531, Pierre Fonjallaz began to cultivate vines on the slopes of Lavaux and became a winemaker. Afterwards, Urbin, then Simon, and later Antoine and so forth took over. Nowadays, Patrick (born in 1946) manages the 13th-generation family business. The company's long history of success is closely associated with the white wine, La République, which used to be the standard drink in every dining car and Waadtland restaurant. The ubiquitous Aigle les Murailles has now replaced this wine, but Fonjallaz is still regarded as a large producer in the Swiss wine world. The company cultivates 30 hectares of vines in six localities between Lausanne and Montreux, producing 400,000 bottles a year. Patrick Fonjallaz has two children aged 6 and 11 years. Whether or not they will carry on the family business tradition is still in the stars. But for their father, who does not overstate the company's long-standing tradition, this is not so important: "I don't expect anything. I only want them to keep their wonderful laughter," he comments.

 

Family firms enjoy being together. The international Les Hénokiens association includes 44 of the oldest family-run businesses. The conditions of membership are strict – the company must be at least 200 years old, under majority family ownership and managed by an ancestor of the firm's founder. The name Hénokiens, or Enoch, comes from the Bible – this association is based on fruitfulness and longevity. And the association's members are certainly long established. At its annual meetings, the aristocrats of business gather together – they are representatives of family firms, which have survived wars, recession and technical revolutions. Their enterprise capital has been accumulated down the centuries: Baron Freiherr Stephan Poschinger of Frauenau, who runs the 12th-generation Poschinger glass manufacturer in the Bavarian forest, meets his North-German colleague, Wilfried Neuhaus-Galladé, a 7th-generation manufacturer of winches for sluices and crane units. Parisian music publisher, Pierre Lemoine, currently the boss of Editions Lemoine est. 1772, exchanges views with the Hugel brothers, who have been Alsacien vintners since 1639. The exclusive association has most members in Italy where family capitalism keeps the economy going, despite the recurring political crises. The title 'Les Hénokiens' is proudly displayed by classic craftsmanship and industrial companies such as Florentine jeweller, Torrini (est. 1369), or Beretta, the firearms maker (1526), the liquorice producer, Amarelli (1731) from Calbria, the 'confetti' wedding confectioner's Pelino (1783) from Sulmona, the bell founder, Daciano Colbachini, from Padua (1745), the Neapolitan shipping company, Augustea (1629), and Mantovana (1615), the fruit paper producer (1615). Switzerland is represented with two Geneva-based private banks: Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, est. 1796, and the Pictet bank (1805).

 

For a long time, Kongo Gumi was the world's oldest family firm. The Japanese temple builder was established in 508, when Shotoku Taishi brought members of the Kongo family from Baekje, in present-day Korea, to Japan to construct the Buddhist temple, Shitenno-ji, in Osaka. Over the centuries, the family built many more famous buildings, for instance, Osaka Castle. The company withstood all types of crises, and during times of war it successfully stayed afloat and built fortifications and coffins – then, after the wars came the next building boom. The 40th generation saw the end of the firm's long family history. In 2006, Kongo Gumi was absorbed by Takamatsu Construction Group and, soon afterwards, was dissolved because of debt. Since then, the traditional Japanese guesthouse, Hoshi Ryokan near Komatsu, has officially been recognised as the world's oldest family business. The first stage was the construction of a simple bath near a hot spring in the year 718. Today, the hotel complex has 100 rooms and Zengoro Hoshi (the 46th generation) manages the hotel.