List of oldest companies: Before 1300
I've had the amazing opportunity to stay at Hoshi Inn (4th oldest on the list)! I keep the card on my desk (https://i.imgur.com/AyWUGhg.png :-)
The courtyard garden the inn is built around is absolutely stunning, and the hot springs were the best out of all the ryokans we stayed at in Japan. The best part though is the hotel is actively managed and operated by the family - these wonderful people will meet you at the door.
There is concern about the future of the hotel, as the son who was assumed to take on ownership of the inn passed away suddenly, leaving the responsibility to the adult daughter. She's seems exceptionally capable (not to mention is incredibly pleasant), but she is unmarried/childless and seems unsure of her desire to marry or assume ownership of the inn. Clearly it would not be the same if the business continued on operated by someone outside the family.
I highly recommend watching this short film about the situation: https://vimeo.com/114879061
edit: replaced "bloodline" with "family" as I've been told Japanese culture resolves bloodline continuity issues via adult adoption.
The oldest name on this list that stood out to me is Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040 in Bavaria, Germany. They have some of the finest lagers I have ever tried. If you enjoy crisp, refreshing lager beers, I highly recommend their beers. My favorite one is probably the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, followed by the Hefeweissbier Dunkel.
Note: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, I just highly enjoy their beers.
I think it's hard to argue it's the same company in some cases. The breweries in particular used to be a brewery in said city (the city had right to have a brewery). Different owners, different locations, later different legal companies, periods of inactivity, etc.. The continuity is lost beyond "there was a brewery in this town 600 year ago".
Wow, this web page looks like it hasn't been updated since 1439: http://www.luebeckaltstadthotel.de/
Equally interesting would a list of companies that lasted for 500, 750, or a 1000 years but then failed.
Imagine being the last person to run a 1000 year old company.
I felt quite sad to read the fate of the top of that list
> Kongō Gumi Co., Ltd. (株式会社金剛組 Kabushiki Gaisha Kongō Gumi) is a Japanese construction company which was the world's oldest continuously ongoing independent company, operating for over 1,400 years until it was absorbed as a subsidiary of Takamatsu in 2006.
One take away from this list is that no software firms have survived. I would recommend hotels or booze if you want a business to last.
I had a fun run-in with this q couple of years ago. We had a field in company profile fkr the year of founding whose validator was '4 digits'.
The oldest restaurant in Europe is in Wroclaw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piwnica_Świdnicka
I once went there without knowing the fact, and it amazed me. It feels so different to sit between those old walls, trying to imagine how the place used to be before or during WWII, or in the 13th century...
Weihenstephan is still one of my fav breweries. Would be nice to see articles regarding how some of these companies managed to keep going for this long.
The older tiers of this list seem to be heavily dominated by Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. Is that reflective of something other than the demographics of non-"New World" contributors to Wikipedia?
It's really incredible to see something like this. I was disheartened to see that Kongō Gumi was acquired in 2006 after 1,400+ years in business. It's just hard to wrap your mind around. But to see hotels and wineries that have existed for over a millennia is really quite amazing.
I hate to rain on the parade, but many of the ancient Japanese inn entries are a bit dubious. They're mostly based on traveler's reports that there was an inn at X/a new hot spring was found at X in year Y being conflated with the fact that there's an inn at X now: they may well be the same, but it's hardly ironclad proof of continuous operation.
There sure is alot of pub and accommodation entries, but then that is one area that technology and indeed, industrialization and the other progressive phases in society have not impacted as much as other industries.
On a positive and encourage note - not one single manufacturer of weapons listed at all.
Hirter beer still sucks, even if it has been around since 1270.
StoraEnso is marked as Finland, but that is due to a recent merger and the location of the HQ of the current company. The company Stora Kopparberg operated a mine in Falun, Sweden from which company shares exist from 1288.
Interestingly, the list lower on the page that has companies from 1300 to 1399 is twice as long. Does anyone know if something significant happened in the world that leaves so many more companies from that century around?
Should not the church be on top of this list?
Something I can't help but notice: all of the countries on the list are currently wealthy, advanced economies.
Cause or effect?
it's incredible to realize that there still exists (technically) a company that was a thousand years old in 1500s.
Fascinating. Is it Japanese culture to maintain the family business?
"...excluding associations and educational, government, or religious organizations."
And yet it lists "government owned institution" Monnaie de Paris, "government-owned" Royal Mint, et cetera...
Ignoring those rule-breakers, 7 of Europe's top 10 are alcohol-related, while Japan holds the top 5 with primarily Hotel and Construction companies.
Don't recognize most of them but the other day I learned Nokia was incorporated in 1871 and it is still around.
If you squint your eyes just right you could consider the Latin Catholic Church to be one of these.
I was very surprised to see a pub (Sean's) owned by Boy George on this list!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianyifang in 1416 is the first Chinese Restaurant
Surprise! The oldest company in Ireland is a pub.
Given that prostitution often claims to be the oldest game in town, it's surprising that there are no brothels in this list.
As a history buff I would love to see a similar list of these companies filtered down to the ones that are still using the original building. It is so rare that you see centuries-old organizations/businesses/anything that still use the same buildings that they were created with
This list looks very suspicious when the largest company ever, the VOC founded 1602 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company founded is not listed there. Apparently only small family companies are listed, not the big ones.
The 2nd biggest company of those times, the Fugger copper mining company founded 1494, dissolved 1657 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugger is also not listed, neither the 3rd largest, the Welser banking and merchant companies. Welsersche Handelsgesellschaft 1490 and ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welser
The theme here appears to be food and shelter.
I'd also wager that some students in Japan were given an assignment to research an old company or business and then place it on the list.
There are world religions younger than Kongō Gumi.
Wow Japan totally dominates the lists! I wonder how they do that.
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Why is there no East India Company in this list?
Great list of potential startup names too!
Universities aren't included?
So many breweries!
