Swire Group (t=太古集團) is a highly diversified global conglomerate with its parent company being John Swire & Sons Limited that holds controlling stakes in a range of businesses trading in the UK, USA, Australia, Papua New Guinea, East and West Africa, and across Southeast Asia. The Group's businesses are arranged into groups: property, aviation, beverages and food chain, marine services, and trading and industrial.
Its core businesses are mainly focused on Asia, with its key operations in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Within Asia, Swire's activities come under the group's publicly quoted arm, Swire Pacific Limited, which is the largest shareholder in two Hong Kong listed companies: Swire Properties and Cathay Pacific. Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese name of Swire. It serves as the brand name for businesses such as Taikoo Sugar, Taikoo Li and Taikoo Shing.
History
The Swire Group's privately owned parent company is London-based
John Swire & Sons Limited.
[The Archives of John Swire & Sons are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/] The Swire Group, started by John Swire (1787–1847) in 1816, had its beginnings as a modest
Liverpool import-export company based mainly on the textile trade.
[The archives of John Swire & Sons Ltd are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/]
Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO), was a wholly owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific, supplying chartered vessels that supported the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. It owned a fleet of 69 offshore vessels.
Businesses
Swire Pacific Limited
The Swire Group's core businesses in Hong Kong are held by
Swire Pacific Limited, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It also operates
Swire Beverages Holdings Ltd and
Swire Foods Holdings Ltd for their beverages and food chain group.
Cathay Pacific Airways
In 1948, Swire Pacific acquired
Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's largest airline, and remains as the largest shareholder, with 42%.
Swire Properties
Incorporated in 1972,
Swire Properties develops and manages commercial, retail and residential properties, with a particular focus on mixed-use development in prime locations at major mass transportation intersections.
The company's investment portfolio in Hong Kong totals approximately 17.8 million sq ft (approximately 1.66 million square metres[Gross floor area in respect of 100% of the properties excluding car park areas and not on an attributable basis.]) of gross floor area, with Pacific Place,
In addition to Hong Kong, the company has a presence in China, the United States and the United Kingdom. In China, Swire Properties has a portfolio amounting to approximately 12.9 million sq ft (approximately 1.20 million square metres
In 2008, the company formed Swire Hotels
Swire Resources
Swire Resources is a Hong Kong retail company specializing in sports apparel, swimwear, and footwear.
The company is the Hong Kong distributor for several major international brands, including Aldo Group, Arena, Columbia Sportswear, Crocs, Rockport, and Speedo.
Swire Shipping
Swire Shipping is the wholly owned shipping arm of John Swire & Sons Limited, headquartered in
Singapore. It operates shipping agencies for its liner shipping trades.
The company has a 67% shareholding in Quadrant Pacific of New Zealand that provides third-party agency services to the forestry and oil industries, as well as husbandry services.
Swire Bulk
Swire Bulk is a company that is in HK.
Steamships Trading Company
Steamships Trading Company is a diversified leader in shipping, transport, property and commercial operation in Papua New Guinea.
The company has a 70% shareholding in Consort Express Lines, a leading provider of coastal and river shipping services in Papua New Guinea. Its liner trades service 17 ports in Papua New Guinea and the company also provides project charters.
The company has a 100% shareholding in Pacific Towing, which has a harbor towing, offshore support and salvage operation that owns and operates 12 tugs and nine line boats across seven ports in Papua New Guinea.
John Swire and Sons (Green Investments) Ltd
John Swire & Sons (Green Investments) Ltd has acquired Scottish biodiesel producer Argent Energy. Argent Energy pioneered large scale commercial biodiesel production in the UK when it started production at its plant near Motherwell in Scotland in 2005.
The firm makes its road fuel by recycling wastes and residues from other industries – specifically used cooking oil which is a waste from the food industry, tallow from the meat industry, and sewer grease.
Swire Coca-Cola
Swire is an anchor bottler in the
Coca-Cola System. It is the bottler of Coca-Cola and its related products in 11 provinces and the Shanghai Municipality in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, and 13 states in the western United States.
[ Swire buys Coca-Cola bottlers in Vietnam, Cambodia for $1bn] This territory represents a population of 780 million people.
Chairmen
Chairmen of Swire Pacific
Swire Pacific was formed in 1974 (from Taikoo Swire) to become the main holding company for Swire's Hong Kong–based assets.
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John Bremridge, 1974–1980
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Duncan Bluck, 1981–1984
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Michael Miles, 1984–1988
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David Gledhill, 1988–1992
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Peter Sutch, 1992–1999
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James Hughes-Hallett, 1999–2004
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David Turnbull, 2005–2006
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Christopher Pratt, 2006–2014
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John Slosar, 2014–2018 (First non-British citizen as chairman)
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Merlin Swire, 2018–2021 (First Swire family chairman)
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Guy Bradley, since 2021
See also
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List of bottling companies
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List of oilfield service companies
Notes
Further reading
External links
