Fast Retailing, Inditex among the biggest family-owned retailers in the world
Japan’s Seven & i Holdings received a buyout proposal from a member of its founding Ito family last week, a potential US$58 billion white-knight bid which would see the company go private and allow it to continue operating under current management.
Many global retailers have opted to stay privately owned or have founding families which have retained significant stakes.
An index compiled by EY and University of St. Gallen at the beginning of 2023 listed the 500 largest family businesses globally ranked by revenue. Below is a list of the biggest 20 family-owned retailers, both publicly listed and private, which all appeared within the top 100.
Walmart
The biggest of all family businesses, American omnichannel retailer Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, and is currently headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The Walton family currently holds 45.5 per cent of its shares outstanding, according to LSEG data.
Schwarz Group
The parent company of German supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland is owned by Dieter Schwarz, son of its founder Josef Schwarz.
The group, which was established in 1930, has about 13,900 stores and 575,000 employees in 32 countries.
LVMH
The Paris-based luxury goods group was founded in 1987 via a merger of Moët Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, and has since 1989 been headed by Bernard Arnault, with his five children recently moving up the ranks of company management.
The Arnault family currently holds 48.8 per cent of shares outstanding, according to LSEG data.
Nike
The US-based sportswear giant was co-founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in 1964 as “Blue Ribbon Sports”.
Knight is currently Chair Emeritus of the board of directors and attends meetings of the board as a non-voting observer, after serving as Nike’s president for a total of 25 years.
According to Nike’s 2024 notice of annual meeting, Phil Knight and his son Travis Knight own more than 97 per cent of outstanding Class A shares along with the holding companies and trusts they control, such as Swoosh LLC.
Loblaw Companies
Loblaw is a Canadian food and pharmacy retailer headquartered in Brampton, Canada.
The largest investor is George Weston Ltd, founded by George Weston in 1882, which owns 53.8 per cent. George Weston is controlled by the Weston family, including Galen G. Weston Galen, 51, chair and director of Loblaw Companies Ltd.
L’Oreal
The French cosmetics maker was founded in 1909 by Eugène Schueller and is headquartered in Clichy.
Its biggest shareholder is the Bettencourt-Meyers family, which holds 34.8 per cent of the shares according to LSEG data.
Elo
France’s Elo is the owner of supermarket chain Auchan, which was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and has its headquarters in Croix, France. The Mulliez family has a 98 per cent stake in the unlisted group Elo, and controls stores such as home improvement and gardening outlet Leroy Merlin or sporting goods chain Decathlon.
Heb Grocery
The Butt family owns all the voting shares in the American grocery giant H-E-B. The private company has its headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded by Florence Butt in 1905, and her grandson Charles Butt currently is the chairperson of the company.
Rajesh Exports
The Indian jeweller was founded in 1989 by its current Executive Chair Rajesh Mehta.
The Mehta family controls 54.55 per cent of the business, according to a statement on the company’s website.
Inditex
The world’s largest listed fashion retailer was founded in 1985 in Spain by Amancio Ortega as a holding company for the Zara brand and its manufacturing plants.
Amancio Ortega controls about 59 per cent of Inditex capital through Pontegadea Inversiones and Partler Participaciones, with a 5 per cent stake held by daughter Sandra Ortega.
Aldi Group
Aldi’s family-owned business was founded in 1913 in Germany. In 1961, brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht divided the business into two legally and economically independent companies, supermarket chains Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued.
The two sister businesses served initially north and south Germany and then expanded to much of Europe as well as the United States and Australia.
Mercadona
Mercadona, the Spanish supermarket and online shopping company, was created in 1977 by Francisco Roig Ballester and his wife Trinidad Alfonso Mocholí as part of the Cárnicas Roig Group.
Juan Roig, son of the founders, is the president of the company, with the family making up the majority of the board.
The Roig family holds 100 per cent of the shares in Mercadona according to the EY St Gallen Family Business Index.
C&S Wholesale Grocers LLC
The US-based supply chain solutions provider and wholesale grocery supplier was founded in 1918. In addition to its core business, it operates and supports corporate grocery stores.
Its owner and Executive Chair Rick Cohen is the third generation of the Cohen family to lead the company.
Jeronimo Martins
Founded at the end of the 18th century, the Portuguese retailer, owner of Pingo Doce supermarkets, was acquired by Francisco Manuel dos Santos in 1921 and has been led by the dos Santos family ever since. Pedro Soares dos Santos is the current CEO of the company and the family owns over 56 per cent of the Jeronimo Martins share capital through the Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos.
Empire Company
The Canada-based company operates in food retail through the supermarket chain Sobeys, which was founded in 1907 by John W Sobey as a meat delivery business.
Members of the Sobey family are still involved in the management of the group, which was incorporated in 1963.
H&M
The Swedish fashion retailer has its headquarters in Stockholm. It was founded by Erling Persson in 1947.
His son, Stefan Persson and his family are H&M’s largest shareholders via Ramsbury Invest AB, which holds all the class A shares, which give 10 votes per share, as well as a portion of class B shares, totalling 61 per cent of all shares. The family of Lottie Tham, Stefan’s sister, holds 5.5 per cent.
Stefan Persson’s son, Karl-Johan Persson, is the board’s chairperson, having served previously as H&M’s CEO from 2009 to 2020.
Compagniefinanciere Richemont
Cartier-owner Richemont was formed in 1988, when the Rembrandt Group spun off its non-South African operations into the new entity.
The Swiss luxury group, which also owns Swiss watchmakers IWC, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoulture, is controlled by Chair Johan Rupert via a combination of two categories of shares that gives him 51 per cent of the voting rights.
Kering
The France-based Gucci owner is led by the founder’s son, François-Henri Pinault, who has been CEO of the group since 2005.
The Pinault family owns 42 per cent of the shares and nearly 60 per cent of voting rights in the company, which was established in 1962 by François Pinault as a timber trading company and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1988, before shifting its focus to the luxury sector in the late 1990s.
Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores
The US-based privately-owned chain operates truck travel stops as well as fuelling stations with attached convenience stores and has about 650 locations in 42 states.
It was founded in 1964 by Tom and Judy Love and is owned by their four children.
Their sons Greg and Frank have been co-CEOs since 2014.
Fast Retailing
The Japanese operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain was founded in 1949 and currently headed by Tadashi Yanai, Japan’s richest man and Uniqlo brand founder.
Yanai, 75, who has long aimed to make Fast Retailing the world’s biggest fashion retailer, currently holds a 17.19 per cent stake in the company, according to LSEG data. The stake held by his family in total amounts to 41.28 per cent.
(Reporting by Linda Pasquini and Agata Rybska in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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