5 of the Oldest Companies Still in Business
Businesses come and go, and even industry titans are subject to the whims of the market. Just look at Woolworth’s, Circuit City, Blockbuster, Pan Am, Compaq, and Tower Records — all gone.
But some companies have impressive staying power, surviving wars, economic collapses, and centuries of shifting technology, quietly continuing to operate long after their founders are forgotten. Here are five such businesses, which count among the oldest extant companies in the world.
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan
Recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest hotel on Earth, this hot spring inn in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, has welcomed guests for more than a millennium. Founded in 705 CE, it has been run by the same family across 52 generations. In that time, numerous famous figures have walked through its doors, including the Japanese samurai Tokugawa Ieyasu (founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns in 1603) and the country’s current emperor, Naruhito.
The hotel’s longevity reflects a broader pattern in Japan, which is home to a disproportionate number of the world’s oldest companies thanks largely to an emphasis on sustainability and generational family ownership. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that Japan is also home to the world’s second-oldest hotel, Hoshi Ryokan. And then there’s Kongō Gumi, a construction company purportedly founded in 578 CE, making it the oldest continuously operating independent company in the world — until 2006, when it became a subsidiary of the Takamatsu Construction Group.
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Staffelter Hof
Located in Germany’s Moselle wine region, Staffelter Hof is the oldest continuously operating winery in the world. Established by Benedictine monks in 862 CE, the vineyard began producing wine at the same time the Vikings were raiding both France and Britain. It then went on to survive the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Wars, and both World War I and II — as well as a period of state control during the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Not long after the revolution ended in 1799, the vineyard went back into private ownership and has been run by the same family ever since.
The Royal Mint
The Royal Mint was founded in 886 CE, making it the oldest surviving business in the United Kingdom. Its story began during the resettlement of London after the capital’s Viking occupation, when it started producing a silver penny of Alfred the Great (a revered Anglo-Saxon king). For centuries, the mint was housed inside the Tower of London before moving to dedicated premises in the 1800s. In 1325, it began making coins for foreign countries, a practice that continued all the way up to 2024. Today, almost 1,150 years after its foundation, it continues to produce coins for the U.K., having done so for around 60 kings and queens, including the current monarch, King Charles III.
Beretta
The Italian firearms manufacturing company Fabbrica d’Armi Pietro Beretta is, according to Guinness World Records, the world’s oldest weapons manufacturer. Beretta, as it is more commonly known, has been owned and operated by the same Italian family since its founding 500 years ago. Its precise foundation date is unknown, but its earliest documented sale came when Bartolomeo Beretta sold 185 harquebus barrels to the Venice arsenal for 296 ducats in 1526. The company has been supplying firearms to militaries, law enforcement, and civilian markets ever since — and has supplied weapons for every major European war since 1650. It is now run by the 15th generation of the Beretta family.
Zildjian
While few American companies come close to matching the age of these older institutions, the cymbal manufacturer Zildjian stands out not only as one of the oldest companies located in the U.S., but also as the world’s oldest continuously operating manufacturer of musical instruments. The company was founded in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1623 by Armenian alchemist and metalsmith Avedis Zildjian, who discovered a durable metal alloy that could make crisp musical sounds without shattering.
Zildjian became an established company in the Ottoman Empire and later began selling cymbals in many major European capitals. Then, in the 1920s, the family cymbal-making business relocated to Massachusetts under the ownership of Avedis III — just in time for the Jazz Age. The company, currently run by the 15th generation of the family, is now the world’s largest maker of cymbals (and drumsticks, too).
