Swire

For people named Swire, see Swire (surname).

Swire Group
Company type
IndustryConglomerate
Founded1816; 210 years ago (1816)
HeadquartersOne Pacific Place, Hong Kong (Operational HQ)

London (Registered HQ) [1]

(Hong Kong-based operations with registered office in London for John Swire & Sons Limited (UK) and certain subsidiaries)
Key people
Barnaby Swire, Chairman, John Swire & Sons Limited;
Merlin Bingham Swire, Chairman, Swire Pacific
ProductsProperty, aviation, beverages, food chain, shipping, offshore support services, agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, mining
RevenueIncrease £12.08 billion (2021)[1]
US$16.3 billion
Number of employees
121,000+[2]
SubsidiariesSwire Pacific

Steamships Trading Company
Swire Beverages
Swire Shipping
Swire Resources

Swire Foods
WebsiteOfficial website
Swire
Traditional Chinese太古集團
Simplified Chinese太古集团
Jyutpingtaai3 gu2 zaap6 tyun4
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTàigǔ Jítuán
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpingtaai3 gu2 zaap6 tyun4

Swire Group (Chinese: 太古集團) is a diversified global conglomerate whose privately owned parent company is John Swire & Sons Limited. The group holds controlling interests in businesses operating across the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Papua New Guinea, East and West Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Its core businesses are primarily focused on Asia, with major operations in Hong Kong and Mainland China. These activities are largely held through the publicly listed Swire Pacific Limited, which is the largest shareholder of Swire Properties and Cathay Pacific. Swire Pacific is included in the Forbes Global 2000.[3]

Taikoo (太古) is the Chinese brand name of Swire and is used across businesses such as Taikoo Shing, Taikoo Li, Taikoo Hui and Taikoo Sugar.

History

The Swire Group traces its origins to 1816, when John Swire (1787–1847) established a Liverpool-based trading company focused on the textile trade.[4]

The group’s privately owned parent company, John Swire & Sons Limited, remains headquartered in London.[5]

Swire Pacific Offshore Holdings Limited (SPO), a former wholly owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific, operated a fleet of offshore support vessels serving the global oil and gas industry.[6]

In April 2022, Tidewater completed its acquisition of Swire Pacific Offshore for approximately US$190 million.[7]

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.[8] 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%.[9]

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.[10]

The company's investment portfolio in Hong Kong totals approximately 17.8 million sq ft (approximately 1.66 million square metres[note 1]) of gross floor area, with Pacific Place,[11] Island East[12] as its core holdings.

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[note 1]), the majority of which is under construction. The five projects consist of mixed-use developments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu,[13] with Sanlitun Village[14] and The Opposite House hotel[15] in Beijing being the best-known among them.

In 2008, the company formed Swire Hotels[16] to create and manage urban hotels in Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom.

Swire Resources

Swire Resources is a Hong Kong retail company specialising in sports apparel, swimwear, and footwear.

The company is the Hong Kong distributor for several major international brands, including Aldo, 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 harbour 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.[17] 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.[18] This territory represents a population of 780 million people.[19]

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.

  1. John Bremridge, 1974–1980
  2. Duncan Bluck, 1981–1984
  3. Michael Miles, 1984–1988
  4. David Gledhill, 1988–1992
  5. Peter Sutch, 1992–1999
  6. James Hughes-Hallett, 1999–2004
  7. David Turnbull, 2005–2006
  8. Christopher Pratt, 2006–2014
  9. John Slosar, 2014–2018 (First non-British citizen as chairman)[20]
  10. Merlin Swire, 2018–2021 (First Swire family chairman)
  11. Guy Bradley, since 2021

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Gross floor area in respect of 100% of the properties excluding car park areas and not on an attributable basis.

References

  1. ^ https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00133143/filing-history. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Swire – About Us". swire.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2025. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  3. ^ "Swire Pacific". Forbes. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  4. ^ 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/
  5. ^ The Archives of John Swire & Sons are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
  6. ^ "Annual Report 2008" (PDF). Swire. p. 39. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  7. ^ "Tidewater adds 50 vessels to its fleet after taking over Singapore operator". 25 April 2022.
  8. ^ "The Official Website of Swire Pacific". swirepacific.com. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  9. ^ "Hong Kong govt takes stake in Cathay Pacific though $7bn rescue". executivetraveller.com. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  10. ^ "The Official Website of Swire Properties". Swireproperties.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Pacific Place Hong Kong". Pacificplace.com.hk. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  12. ^ "Island East". Island East. 29 June 2010. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  13. ^ "Future Developments". Swire Properties. Archived from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  14. ^ "Sanlitun Village Shopping & Life Style Centre". Sanlitunvillage.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  15. ^ "Boutique Luxury Hotel – Beijing". The Opposite House. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  16. ^ "Home page". swirehotels.com. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  17. ^ "Who We Are". Argent Energy. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  18. ^ Swire buys Coca-Cola bottlers in Vietnam, Cambodia for $1bn
  19. ^ "Beverages & Food Chain". Swire. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  20. ^ Dvorak, Joanne Chiu And Phred (17 August 2014). "Swire Pacific Grooms Talent for the Long Term". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 28 December 2020.

Further reading


allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swire_Pacific_Limited