Civilisation/Business

Central banks

Bank of England was founded by William Paterson in 1694. The Bank's original home was in Walbrook in the City of London. Current headquarters have been on Threadneedle Street since 1734. The bank financed the Royal Navy in 1694, via creation of the National Debt

John Houblon was the first Governor of the Bank of England. The current Governor is Andrew Bailey

The Chief Cashier is the person responsible for issuing banknotes at the Bank of England. Since 1870 the Chief Cashier's signature has been printed on all bank notes issued by the Bank of England. John Kendrick was the first Chief Cashier

Federal Reserve System (also known as the Federal Reserve or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created in 1913. The primary declared motivation for creating the Federal Reserve System was to address banking panics

European Central Bank (ECB) was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998 and is headquartered in Frankfurt. The primary objective of the European Central Bank is to maintain price stability within the Eurozone, which is the same as keeping inflation low. The current president is Christine Lagarde

International financial institutions

World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. The World Bank is based in Washington, D.C. Consists of two agencies of the five that comprise the World Bank Group: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and The International Development Association (IDA)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. Headquarters are in Washington, D. C. It works to foster global growth and economic stability by providing policy advice and financing the members by working with developing countries to help them achieve macroeconomic stability and reduce poverty. The current managing director is Kristalina Georgieva

Stock exchanges

Bourse of Antwerp was the world's first purpose-built commodity exchange. It was founded in 1531 and closed in 1997 when merged into the Brussels Stock Exchange

Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the oldest in the world. It was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company for dealings in its printed stocks and bonds. It was subsequently renamed the Amsterdam Bourse and was the first to formally begin trading in securities. It is now known as Euronext Amsterdam

Royal Exchange in the City of London was founded in 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham. After the building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, it was rebuilt and re-established in 1669. This was a move away from coffee houses and a step towards the modern model of a stock exchange

London Stock Exchange was founded in 1801. Financial markets were de-regulated in the “Big Bang” in 1986. Moved from Old Broad Street to Paternoster Square in 2004

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was founded in 1792. It is the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalisation of its listed companies. NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), an American holding company. Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with Euronext

Euronext N.V. is a European electronic stock exchange based in Amsterdam, and with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal and Ireland. In addition to equities and derivatives markets, the Euronext group provides clearing and information services

NASDAQ began trading in 1971, and was the world's first electronic stock market. Nasdaq was initially an acronym for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. NASDAQ eventually assumed the majority of major trades formerly executed by the over-the-counter (OTC) system of trading. It is the world's second-largest stock exchange by market capitalisation of its listed companies

Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) was founded in 1990. It is one of the three stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the world's third-largest stock exchange by market capitalisation

Japan Exchange Group owns and operates the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Bombay Stock Exchange is located in Mumbai. Established in 1875, it is the oldest stock exchange in Asia

SIX Swiss Exchange is based in Zurich and is Switzerland's principal stock exchange

Saudi Stock Exchange or Tadawul is a stock exchange in Riyadh

JSE Limited (previously the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa

Stock market indices

FTSE 100 Index (Financial Times Stock Exchange) is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalisation. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group and index began on 3 January 1984 at the base level of 1000. Other related indices are the FTSE 250 Index (which includes the next largest 250 companies after the FTSE 100), the FTSE 350 Index (which is the aggregation of the FTSE 100 and 250), FTSE SmallCap Index and the FTSE Fledgling Index

Dow Jones Industrial Average was created by Charles Dow, the editor of The Wall Street Journal and the co-founder of Dow Jones & Company, and named after him and his business associate, statistician Edward Jones. It was first calculated in 1896, and is a price-weighted measurement stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States

S&P 500 (Standard and Poor’s 500) tracks the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States

NYSE Composite is a stock market index covering all common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over 2,000 stocks are covered in the index

Nasdaq-100 is made up of 101 equity securities issued by 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock market

CAC 40 is a measure of the 40 most significant stocks among the 100 largest market caps on the Euronext Paris

AEX index is a stock market index composed of Dutch companies that trade on Euronext Amsterdam

BEL 20 is the benchmark stock market index of Euronext Brussels

PSI-20 is the benchmark stock market index of Euronext Lisbon

EURO STOXX 50 is a stock index of Eurozone stocks designed by STOXX, an index provider owned by Deutsche Börse Group

DAX is a stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue-chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange

IBEX 35 is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange

Hang Seng Index is an index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Launched in 1969

Nikkei 225 measures the performance of 225 large, publicly owned companies in Japan

Straits Times Index tracks the performance of the top 30 companies that are listed on the Singapore Exchange

BSE SENSEX is a stock market index of 30 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange

NIFTY 50 represents 50 of the largest Indian companies listed on the National Stock Exchange

SSE Composite Index is an index of all stocks that are traded at the Shanghai Stock Exchange

CSI 300 is a stock market index designed to replicate the performance of the top 300 stocks traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange

TA-125 Index is a stock market index of the 125 most highly capitalised companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

KOSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index) is the representative stock market index of South Korea

S&P/TSX Composite Index is the benchmark Canadian index of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)

All Ordinaries is the oldest index of shares in Australia

VIX is the ticker symbol and the popular name for the Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index, a popular measure of the stock market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index options. It is calculated and disseminated on a real-time basis by the CBOE, and is commonly referred to as the “fear index”

Commodities and Futures Exchanges

London Metal Exchange (LME) is the futures exchange with the world's largest market in options and futures contracts on base and other metals. The London Metal Market and Exchange Company was founded in 1877. At first only copper was traded. Lead and zinc were soon added but only gained official trading status in 1920. Many deals are made for commodities to be delivered in three months' time. The custom stems from the time that copper cargoes originally took in 1877 on their voyage from the ports of Chile. Headquarters are on Leadenhall Street

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange

CME Group Inc. (Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, The Commodity Exchange) is the world's largest financial derivatives exchange. Headquarters are in Chicago

Companies by industry

Banks

ABN AMRO is a Dutch state-owned bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. It was re-established, in its current form, in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of ABN AMRO Group by a banking consortium consisting of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander and Fortis

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the oldest surviving bank in the world and Italy's third largest bank. Founded in 1472

Banco Santander was founded in 1857 and is the fourth-largest bank in Europe. Purchased Abbey National (2004), Alliance & Leicester (2008), and Bradford & Bingley (2008). Ana Botin is the executive chairman

Bank of America is the second-largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase. Purchased Countrywide Financial in 2008 for $4.1 billion, to become the leading mortgage originator and servicer in the United States

Bankia is a Spanish banking conglomerate that was formed in 2010, consolidating the operations of seven regional savings banks. In 2012, Bankia requested a bailout of €19 billion, the largest bank bailout in the nation's history. In 2021, the bank merged with CaixaBank

Barclays traces its origins back to 1690 when quakers John Freame and Thomas Gould started trading as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street. In 1967, Barclays deployed the world's first cash dispenser. Barclays introduced contactless payment in the UK in 2009. Bob Diamond resigned as chief executive of Barclays after a Bank of England hearing in 2012, following controversy over manipulation of Libor interest rates by traders employed by the bank

BNP Paribas was created in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas. It is the largest French banking group and the largest bank in the Eurozone

Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998. Citigroup is the third-largest banking institution in the United States

Commerzbank was founded in 1870. Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt was the tallest building in Europe from its completion in 1997 until 2003

Coutts is a private bank founded in 1692. It is part of NatWest Group's wealth management division. The British Royal Family are notable clients

Credit Agricole is the world's largest cooperative financial institution. It is France's second largest bank, after BNP Paribas. It is sometimes called “the green bank” due to its historical ties to farming

Credit Suisse was founded by Alfred Escher in 1856 to fund the development of Switzerland's rail system. Headquarters are in Zurich

Deutsche Bank was founded in 1969. It is dual listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange

Goldman Sachs is second on the list of investment banks in the world by revenue, behind JPMorgan Chase. The company was founded in New York City in 1869 by Marcus Goldman. In 1882, Goldman's son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm. In a 2009 story in Rolling Stone, journalist Matt Taibbi characterized Goldman Sachs as a "great vampire squid" sucking money instead of blood

HBOS was formed by the 2001 merger of Halifax and the Bank of Scotland. In 2009 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group

HSBC is the second largest bank in Europe behind BNP Paribas. It was founded in 1985 and its present form was established in London by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1991

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is the largest bank in the world by profit and market capitalisation. It is one of China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks (the other three being the Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank. Founded in 1984. Headquarters are in Beijing

ING was founded in 1991. Headquartered in Amsterdam. The company’s logo is an orange lion

JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States. Originally known as Chemical Bank. The present company was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. Jamie Dimon is the current chairman and CEO

Lloyds Bank was founded in Birmingham in 1765. In 1995 it merged with the Trustee Savings Bank and traded as Lloyds TSB Bank plc between 1999 and 2013. In 2009, it became the principal subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, which was formed by the acquisition of HBOS. The company’s logo is a black horse

NatWest (National Westminster Bank) was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it became part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which was re-named NatWest Group in 2020

Northern Rock was formerly the Northern Rock Building Society. In 2007 the bank sought and received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England, to replace funds it was unable to raise from the money market. This led to the first run on a British bank since 1866. The retail operations were acquired by Virgin Group in 2012

Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in 1727 and is a retail banking subsidiary of NatWest Group. The bank is completely separate from the fellow Edinburgh-based bank, the Bank of Scotland

Sveriges Riksbank is the central bank of Sweden. It is the world's oldest central bank. Following its third centennial in 1968, the Bank instituted the annual Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

TSB Bank is a subsidiary of Sabadell Group. The TSB name was previously used by the Trustee Savings Bank prior to its merger with Lloyds Bank in 1995, resulting in the formation of Lloyds TSB in 1999

UBS was founded in 1862 as the Union Bank of Switzerland and is based in Zurich. It is the largest private bank in the world. Its logo of three keys stands for the company's values of confidence, security, and discretion

Wells Fargo is one of the "Big Four Banks" of the United States along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Formed by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo in 1852 to provide express and banking services to California, which was growing rapidly due to the California Gold Rush

Beverages

Accolade Wines is a major global wine business. It grew from Thomas Hardy and Sons founded in 1853 in Adelaide to become Australia's largest winemaker

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is a multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. North American headquarters are located in St. Louis, Missouri. AB InBev was formed through InBev (itself a merger between Interbrew from Belgium and AmBev from Brazil) acquiring Anheuser-Busch from the United States. Brands include Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Becks, Hoegaarden, and Leffe

Asahi is headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. Purchased Grolsch and Peroni from SABMiller in 2016, and Fuller’s in 2019.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is a wine merchant founded in 1698, and is the oldest continuously trading shop in London

Britvic was founded in Chelmsford as the British Vitamin Products Company. Brands include Robinsons, J₂O and Tango

Carling Brewery was founded in Canada in 1840. Carling lager was first sold in the United Kingdom in 1952. The company is now owned by Molson Coors

The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola was originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine. It was invented by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta. In 1888 Pemberton sold Coca-Cola's ownership rights to Asa Griggs Candler. The drink's name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves, and kola nuts (a source of caffeine)

Molson Coors was formed in 2005 through the merger of Molson of Canada, and Coors of the United States. In 2016, Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company

PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay. Products include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Lay's, Gatorade, Tropicana, 7 Up, Doritos, Lipton Teas, Quaker Foods, and Walkers. Pepsi was originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink. It was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961

Red Bull was co-founded by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur who had the idea to introduce and market the drink to Europe. Mateschitz visited Thailand in 1982 and discovered that Krating Daeng (literally ‘red bull’), a Thai energy drink, helped to cure his jet lag

SABMiller was a South African multinational brewing and beverage company, and the world's second-largest brewer measured by revenues before it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016. It was also a major bottler of Coca-Cola. Brands included Fosters, Grolsch, Miller, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell

Seagram was a large corporation headquartered in Montreal that was the largest distiller of alcoholic beverages in the world. Toward the end of its independent existence it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures, including Universal Studios in 1995. The Seagram assets have since been acquired by other companies, notably The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, and Pernod Ricard

Suntory was formed in Osaka in 1899 and is the third largest maker of distilled beverages in the world. Soft drink brands include Orangina, Lucozade, and Ribena

Chemicals

BASF is an acronym for Baden Aniline and Soda Factory. Formed in Mannheim by Friedrich Engelhorn in 1865 for the production of dyes. In 1867, research into synthesis of the dye indigo was successfully concluded. The development of the Haber process from 1908 to 1912 made it possible to synthesize ammonia. It is the largest chemical producer in the world

Dupont was founded in Delaware in 1802 as a manufacturer of gunpowder. Products included neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Nomex and Lycra. In 2017 it merged with the Dow Chemical Company to create DowDuPont

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was formed in 1926 when the four largest chemical companies in the UK merged. The four were Brunner, Mond; Nobel Industries; British Dyestuffs; and United Alkali. In 2008 Dutch firm AkzoNobel acquired ICI for $15.8 billion

Ineos is the fourth largest chemical company in the world. Founded in 1998 by Jim Ratcliffe, who still owns two-thirds of the company

Monsanto was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide. Acquired by Bayer in 2018 for $66 billion

Syngenta was founded in 2000 by the merger of the agrichemical businesses of Novartis and AstraZeneca, and acquired by China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) in 2015. Headquarters are in Basle^[update]

Union Carbide was formed in 1917 and is now owned by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide India Limited owned the pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, that suffered a gas leak accident in 1984

Clothing

Berlei is a brand of women's underwear founded by Frederick Burley in Sydney in 1910

Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher and is headquartered in San Francisco. Banana Republic was founded in 1978 by Mel and Patricia Ziegler, and was purchased by Gap in 1983. Old Navy is also owned by Gap

H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) was founded by Erling Persson in Sweden in 1947. The shop, called Hennes (Swedish for "hers"), exclusively sold women's clothing. In 1968, Persson acquired the hunting apparel retailer Mauritz Widforss in Stockholm, which led to the inclusion of a menswear collection in the product range and the name change to Hennes & Mauritz. It is the second-largest global clothing retailer, behind Inditex

Hollister Co. is an American clothing brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch. The concept was originally designed to attract consumers aged 14–18. The logo is a gull

Inditex is based in Galicia, Spain, and is the biggest fast fashion group in the world. The company's flagship store is Zara. Founded by Amancio Ortega

Kangol is an English clothing company famous for its headwear. The company logo is a kangaroo

Levi Strauss was a German-Jewish immigrant to the USA who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm began in 1853 in San Francisco

Maidenform is a brand of women's underwear, founded in 1922 by seamstress Ida Rosenthal, her husband William Rosenthal, and Enid Bissett who owned the shop that employed her

Matalan was founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. Headquarters moved from Skelmersdale to Knowsley in 2014

Monsoon Accessorize operates two international retail clothing chains – Monsoon and Accessorize. Monsoon was founded by Peter Simon in London in 1973

Next is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom. The company began as Hepworth’s, which bought Kendall & Sons. George Davis came up with the idea of Next

The North Face is an American outdoor clothing company. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park

Primark, named Penneys in the Republic of Ireland, is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin. It is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods.  Founded by Arthur Ryan in 1969

Quiz is a British clothing business founded in 1993 in Scotland by Tarak Ramzan

River Island was founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis under the title Lewis Separates, which was rebranded as Chelsea Girl. The name was changed to River Island in 1988

Spanx is an American intimate apparel company with pants and leggings, founded in Atlanta, Georgia by Sarah Blakely in 2000

Superdry products combine vintage Americana styling with Japanese inspired graphics. Founded in Cheltenham in 1985

Topshop started as a brand extension of the department store Peter Robinson in 1964 and originally sold fashion by young British designers. It was part of the Arcadia Group but went into administration in 2020. The Topshop brand was purchased by ASOS in 2021 and now operates exclusively online

Ultimo was a Glaswegian designer lingerie brand founded by tycoon Michelle Mone

Uniqlo is a Japanese casual wear designer that has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. since 2005. Roger Federer is endorsed by Uniqlo

Victoria’s Secret was founded in California in 1977 by Roy and Gaye Raymond. The company is the largest retailer of lingerie in the United States. Victoria’s Secret supermodels are known as Angels

Consumer electronics

Bang & Olufsen (B&O) was founded in Denmark in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen. B&O uses a Beo prefix for the names of its product lines

Fitbit is headquartered in San Francisco. Founded and managed by James Park and Eric Friedman in 2007, the company is known for its wearable technology, including activity trackers. The company was acquired by Alphabet, Inc. in 2021

Jawbone developed and sold wearable technology such as the Jawbone UP wristbands, and portable audio devices including the Jambox. Since 2017 it has been undergoing liquidation

JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is based in Yokohama. Founded in 1927, the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions, and for developing the Video Home System (VHS) video recorder

LG Electronics is a South Korean company and is the world's second largest TV manufacturer behind Samsung Electronics. It was founded in 1958 as Goldstar, and in 1995 the name was changed to Lucky-Goldstar, then to LG Electronics

Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) and is based in Santa Clara. Nvidia announced plans in 2020 to acquire Arm Ltd. from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for a value of US$40 billion in stock and cash, which would be the largest semiconductor acquisition to date. In February 2022, facing increased regulatory hurdles, Nvidia signaled that it was dropping its acquisition of Arm

TDK was founded in Japan in1935 to manufacture iron-based magnetic material ferrite. In 1952 the company began production of magnetic tapes, with compact cassette tapes following in 1966. TDK is an initialism of the original Japanese name of the company: Tokyo Denki Kagaku Kogyo (Tokyo Electric Chemical Industry Co.)

Consumer goods

L’Oréal was founded in 1909 by Eugène Schueller, a French chemist who developed a hair dye formula called Oréale. Brands include Essie, Garnier, Maybelline, and NYX Cosmetics. The advertising slogan, "Because I'm worth it", was created in 1973. The current slogan is "Because we're worth it"

Colgate-Palmolive was founded in 1806 in New York. Brands include Ajax, Colgate, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Palmolive, and Ultra Brite

Proctor & Gamble was founded in 1837 in Cincinnati. Brands include Always, Ariel, Charmin, Fairy, Febreze, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Olay, Oral B, Pampers, Tide, and Vicks

Reckitt Benckiser was formed in 1999 by the merger of British company Reckitt & Colman plc and Dutch company Benckiser N.V. In 2010, Reckitt bought SSL International, the makers of Durex condoms and Scholl's footcare products. Brands include Dettol, Disprin, Strepsils, Veet, Gaviscon, Air Wick, Calgon, Clearasil, and Cillit Bang

Unilever was founded in 1929 by the merger of the British soapmaker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. It owns over 400 brands, with a turnover in 2020 of 51 billion euros. There are thirteen brands with annual sales of over one billion euros: Axe/Lynx, Dove, Omo/Persil, Heartbrand (Wall's) ice creams, Hellmann's, Knorr, Lipton, Lux, Magnum, Rexona/Degree, Lifebuoy, Sunsilk and Sunlight

Cosmetics

The Body Shop was founded by Anita Roddick in Brighton in 1976. L’Oréal purchased The Body Shop in 2006, and sold the business to Brazilian cosmetics company Natura in 2017 for €1 billion

Elizabeth Arden is an American cosmetics, skin care and fragrance company founded in 1910 as Red Door by Elizabeth Arden (real name Florence Graham). The company was sold to Revlon in 2016

Garnier is owned by L’Oréal. Laboratoires Garnier was founded in France in 1904 by Alfred Amour Garnier. The company's first product was patented as the first hair lotion derived from natural plant ingredients

Lush was founded by Mark and Mo Constantine in Poole in 1995. Lush products are 100% vegetarian. Lush does not buy from companies that carry out, fund, or commission any animal testing. The bath bomb was invented by Mo Constantine

Maybelline is an American makeup brand sold worldwide and is owned by L’Oréal. The company slogan is “Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline”

Revlon was founded in 1932 by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph along with a chemist, Charles Lachman. They started with a single product – a new type of nail enamel. ULTIMA II is an American-based cosmetics and skin care brand owned by Revlon

Urban Decay is an American cosmetics brand headquartered in Newport Beach, California, and is a subsidiary of L'Oréal. The company is best-known for the Naked collection, which includes twelve different eye shadow palettes

Couriers

DHL is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL. DHL was founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn in San Francisco in 1969

FedEx is an abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000. Founded in 1971 by Frederick W. Smith. Best-known slogan is "when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight"

Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of the Royal Mail. Its European delivery partner, General Logistics Systems (GLS), is also a subsidiary of Royal Mail. The two hubs for the parcel system are based at Coventry

United Parcel Service (UPS) was founded by James Casey in 1907 as the American Messenger Company. UPS is the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around US$85 billion in 2020. The brown colour that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called Pullman brown

Financial services

American Express was founded in 1850 as an express mail business in Buffalo, New York and is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The American Express charge card was launched in 1958

American International Group (AIG) is a finance and insurance corporation that was bailed out by the United States Federal Reserve Bank in 2008. It had sold credit protection through its London unit in the form of credit default swaps (CDSs) on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), but they had declined in value

Clearstream is the clearing division of Deutsche Borse and is based in Luxembourg. A 2007 political scandal known as the Clearstream affair alleged that the company may have aided prominent French politicians and companies in evading taxes. It was also suggested that Clearstream might have helped French individuals and companies to launder money arising from bribes surrounding the 1991 sale of six ships to Taiwan

Diners Club was formed in 1950 and was the first independent payment card company in the world

Experian is based in Dublin and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It is one of the Big Three credit-reporting agencies, alongside TransUnion and Equifax

Fannie Mae, The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), is a government sponsored enterprise (GSE) of the United States. It is a stockholder-owned corporation authorized to make loans and loan guarantees and was founded in 1938

Freddie Mac, The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), is a government sponsored enterprise of the United States federal government. Freddie Mac was founded in 1970. The primary difference between Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is where they source their mortgages from. Fannie Mae buys mortgages from larger, commercial banks, while Freddie Mac buys them from much smaller banks

Mastercard, originally known as Interbank from 1966 to 1969 and Master Charge from 1969 to 1979, was created by an alliance of several regional bankcard associations in response to the Visa credit card

S&P Global Ratings is an American credit rating agency and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is considered the largest of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, alongside Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings

Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit. Launched in 1958 as the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became the Visa credit card issued by Visa Inc. Visa is the world's second-largest card payment organization (debit and credit cards combined), after being surpassed by China UnionPay in 2015

Worldpay provides payment and technology services to merchants and financial institutions in the United States and processes more than 20.1 billion payment transactions in volume annually. In 2019 it was acquired and merged into Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)

Food

Associated British Foods (ABF) was founded in 1935. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast. Its grocery division includes the brands Allinson, Mazola, Ovaltine, Ryvita, Jordans and Twinings.  Primark is a subsidiary of ABF

Barilla is the world's leading pasta maker with 25% of the Italian market

Baskin-Robbins is the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shops and is based in Canton, Massachusetts. It was founded in Glendale, California, in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins. The company is known for its "31 flavours" slogan, with the idea that a customer could have a different flavour every day of any month

Ben & Jerry's is a brand of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, and owned by Unilever. It was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1978. One of the flavours is called “Black & Tan“

Cadbury is a subsidiary company wholly owned by American company Mondelez International since 2012. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars. Founded by John Cadbury in Birmingham in 1824. Cadbury is headquartered in Uxbridge. Bought by Kraft Foods in 2010

Chupa Chups is a Spanish brand of lollipop. The company logo was designed in 1969 by Salvador Dalí

Danone was founded in Barcelona and is based in Paris. Brands include Activia, Actimel, Alpro, Aptamil, Dannon, Evian, and Volvic

J. S. Fry & Sons was a British chocolate company owned by Joseph Storrs Fry and his Quaker family. Founded in Bristol in 1761. The company became a division of Cadbury in the early twentieth century

General Mills is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota. It markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs, and Cheerios

Greggs was founded by John Gregg as a Tyneside bakery in 1939. It opened its first shop in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951. The company's best-selling product is the sausage roll, selling more than two million units weekly

Haagen-Dazs is made by the Hristov family, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York in 1961. He company started off with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee

Heinz was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. The first product manufactured was horseradish. Company headquarters are in Pittsburgh. Baked beans originated in Boston, and were first mass-produced in the UK by Heinz in 1928. Since 1896, the company has used its "57 Varieties" slogan

Hershey's is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. Founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894. Company headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania

Hotel Chocolat is a British chocolatier and is the only company in the United Kingdom to grow cocoa on its own farm

KP Snacks became part of United Biscuits in 1968. The KP Snacks subsidiary produces a range of packet snack brands including Hula Hoops, Skips, McCoy's, Frisps, Royster's, Space Raiders, and Discos. The ‘KP’ originally stood for ‘Kenyon Produce’. United Biscuits sold the company to Intersnack in 2012

Kraft Foods became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. Brands include Capri Sun, Kool-Aid, Kraft, Maxwell House, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Mars, Incorporated was founded in 1911. Company headquarters are in Virginia. Confectionary products include Mars bars, Milky Way bars, M&M's, Skittles, Snickers, and Twix. Other food products include Ben's Original and pasta sauce brand Dolmio. Pet food brands include Pedigree, Sheba, and Whiskas. In 2016, Mars announced that Wrigley would be merged with its chocolate segment to form a new subsidiary, Mars Wrigley Confectionery

Mondelez International was established in 2012 when Kraft Foods was renamed Mondelez and retained its snack food business, while its grocery business was spun off to a new company called Kraft Foods Group. Brands include cracker brands Belvita, Ritz, and Peek Freans; chocolate brands Milka, Côte d'Or, Toblerone, Cadbury, Green & Black's, and Fry's

Nestlé is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world measured by revenues. Nestle was formed in 1905 by the merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company and Farine Lactee Henri Nestle. Corporate acquisitions include Crosse & Blackwell, Findus, Libby's, Rowntree Mackintosh, and Gerber. Brands include Nespresso, Nescafé, Kit Kat, Smarties, and Nesquik

Premier Foods was founded in 1975 as Hillsdown Holdings. Brands include Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Sharwood's, Loyd Grossman, Oxo, Bisto and Batchelors. Rank Hovis McDougall was acquired by Premier Foods in 2007

Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery brands included Kit Kat, Aero, and Quality Street. It was purchased by Nestlé in 1988

Wrigley was founded in Chicago in 1891 by William Wrigley. Wrigley's gum was traditionally made out of chicle. The company is now wholly owned by Mars, Incorporated

Home appliances

Alessi is a housewares and kitchen utensil company in Italy. Designers of Alessi products include Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Philippe Starck

Beko was founded in 1955 in Istanbul by Vehbi Koc and Leon Bejerano. The company's name is a combination of the first two letters of the founders' surnames

Dyson was founded in 1991 in Malmesbury, Wiltshire by James Dyson. Products include the dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner, the Airblade hand dryer, and the Air Multiplier "bladeless" fan. In 2019, Dyson announced the company's permanent move to Singapore

Electrolux is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool. Founded in 1913. Brands include AEG, Frigidaire, Westinghouse, and Zanussi

Haier Group is a Chinese multinational consumer electronics and home appliances company headquartered in Qingdao. The Haier brand has the world's largest market share in white goods. Brands include GE Appliances, Candy, Hotpoint, and Hoover

The Hoover Company was founded in Ohio in 1908 by William Henry Hoover. Best-known slogan is "It Beats...as it Sweeps...as it Cleans"

Hotpoint was founded in 1911. The company name comes from the “hot point” of the innovative first electric iron. Ownership of the brand is split between Whirlpool, which has the rights in Europe, and Haier, which has the rights in the Americas through its purchase of GE Appliances in 2016

Indesit was founded in 1975 as Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA by Vittorio Merloni. In 1987, Merloni Elettrodomestici acquired Indesit. In 2014, Whirlpool agreed to pay 758 million euros to buy a 60% stake in Indesit and its owner Hotpoint

Numatic International is a British manufacturer of vacuum cleaners. The vacuum cleaner has several variations, with different names on the cap (including Hetty, Harry and James)

Smeg is an Italian manufacturer of upmarket domestic appliances. Best known for its range of retro refrigerators

Whirlpool Corporation was founded in Michigan in 1911. It has annual revenue of approximately $21 billion. Brands include Whirlpool, Hotpoint, Indesit, KitchenAid, and Maytag

Zanussi was founded in Italy in 1916. It was bought by Electrolux in 1984. Best-known slogan is “The Appliance of Science”

Hotels

Accor is a French company and is the largest hospitality company in Europe. Brands include Raffles, Sofitel, Mercure, Novotel, and ibis

Hilton Worldwide Holdings, formerly Hilton Hotels Corporation, was founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919. Brands include DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The origins of the business can be traced back to 1777, when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe established the American Intercontinental Hotels chain as a division of Pan Am in 1946. Brands include Crown Plaza Hotels & Resorts, and Holiday Inn

Marriott is the largest hotel chain in the world by the number of available rooms. It has 7,642 properties containing more than 1.4 million rooms in 131 countries. The company was founded by J. Willard Marriott and his wife Alice Marriott in 1927

Radisson Hotels was founded in Minnesota in 1909 and is named after the French fur-trader and explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson. Most Radisson-branded hotels are located in the United States

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is the biggest hotel chain in the world by the number of hotels, having over 9.000 hotels in more than 80 countries. Brands include Ramada, Days Inn, and Travelodge

Jewellery and watchmaking

Backes & Strauss was founded in 1789 in Germany and is the oldest diamond company in the world. In 2006, the company entered into a strategic partnership with the Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller Group, launching its flagship collections of Regent, Berkeley and Piccadilly watches

Garrard & Co was founded by George Wickes in 1722. Garrard was the first official and most notably important Crown Jeweller having supplied jewels for Queen Victoria. The America’s Cup is an ornate sterling silver ewer crafted in 1848 by Garrard & Co

International Watch Company is a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868. Best known for its aviation watches

Longines was founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832. It is owned by the Swatch Group. Its winged hourglass logo is the oldest registered trademark for a watchmaker. Longines is known for its Aviators range of watches

Mappin & Webb has held Royal Warrants to British monarchs since 1897. Founded in 1775, when Jonathan Mappin opened a silver workshop in Sheffield

Pandora is an international Danish jewellery manufacturer and retailer founded in 1982 by Per Enevoldsen. The company has a production site in Thailand and sells its products to the affordable mass market

Patek Philippe was founded in 1851 by a Polish watchmaker and a French watchmaker. Widely considered to be one of the most prestigious watch manufacturers in the world. Best-known slogan is "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation."

Rolex was founded by Alfred Davis and Hans Wilsdorf in London in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex moved its base of operations to Geneva in 1919. Rolex has three watch lines: Oyster Perpetual, Professional and Cellini. In 2017, a Rolex Daytona wristwatch owned by Paul Newman was sold at a New York auction for US$17.75 million

Sekonda watches were originally produced in the Soviet Union, at the First Moscow Watch Factory in Moscow and the Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Leningrad. All its watches have been produced from factories in Hong Kong since 1993

Swatch Group was founded in Switzerland in 1983 and is the world’s largest watch company. The name Swatch is a contraction of "second watch", as the watches were intended as casual, disposable accessories. Brands include Blancpain, Breguet, Glashutte Original, Longines, Omega, and Tissot

Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery firm founded in 1896. Their pieces often feature flowers, animals, and fairies

Mass media

Bauer Media Group is a large European-based media company, headquartered in Hamburg, which manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world

Comcast is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue (behind AT&T), the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States. Comcast acquired Sky in 2018

Fox Corporation is controlled by Rupert Murdoch. it was formed in 2019 as a result of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company; the assets that were not acquired by Disney were spun off from 21st Century Fox as the new Fox Corporation

Rogers Communications is based in Toronto. Operates in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet

Thomson Reuters was created in Toronto in 2008 by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters Group

Vivendi is a media conglomerate headquartered in Paris. The company was originally a water company, created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III in 1853. It is the owner of Groupe Canal+, and was the parent company of Activision Blizzard until 2013

WarnerMedia was formerly known as Time Warner and AOL Time Warner. It is owned by AT&T and headquartered at the Hudson Yards complex in New York. Brands include CNN and HBO

Mining and metals

Anglo American is a British listed multinational mining company and is the world's largest producer of platinum. Founded as a gold mining company in Johannesburg in 1917

Antofagasta is one of the major international copper producers with its activities concentrated mainly in Chile. The company is headquartered in London and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index

BHP is an Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum company headquartered in Melbourne. It is the world's largest mining company. In 2001 Billiton Plc merged with the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) to form BHP Billiton. In 2017 BHP Billiton re-branded itself as BHP

Debswana is a giant mining company located in Botswana, and is the world's leading producer of diamonds by value. Debswana is a joint venture between the government of Botswana and the South African diamond company De Beers (founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1888)

Glencore is an Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. The current company was created through a merger of Glencore with Xstrata in 2013

Friedrich Krupp AG was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and was the premier weapons manufacturer for Germany in both world wars. Friedrich Krupp launched the family's metal-based activities, building a pioneering steel foundry in Essen in 1810

Rio Tinto Group is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation, behind BHP. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the Spanish government. It is dual-listed on the FTSE 100 Index and the Australian Securities Exchange

Rusal is the world’s second largest aluminium company. It was the largest until overtaken by China Hongqiao Group in 2015. Headquarters are in Moscow

U. S. Steel was founded by J.P. Morgan in 1901 by combining the Carnegie Steel Company with the Federal Steel Company and the National Steel Company. It was capitalised at $1.4 billion, making it the world's first billion-dollar corporation. Headquarters are in Pittsburgh

Vale is a Brazilian multinational diversified metals and mining corporation. In addition to being the third-largest mining company in the world, Vale is also the largest producer of iron ore and second largest of nickel. It is the most valuable company in Latin America. The company has had two catastrophic tailings dam failures in Brazil, in 2015 and 2019

Oil and gas

Agip (General Italian Oil Company) is an Italian automotive gasoline and diesel retailer established in 1926. Agip was acquired by Eni in 2003. The Agip logo is a six-legged dog

BP was formerly known as British Petroleum. In 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil which he discovered in May 1908. This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. In 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated to exploit this. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). The AIOC became the British Petroleum Company in 1954. In 2001 the company adopted the marketing name of BP, and replaced its ‘Green Shield’ logo with the ‘Helios’ symbol, a green and yellow sunflower logo

Chevron is a successor company of Standard Oil and is the second largest oil company in the United States, behind ExxonMobil. Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 for $45 billion

Equinor (formerly Statoil) is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. The Government of Norway is the largest shareholder in Statoil with 67% of the shares

Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999. The name is a phonetic version of the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil (SO = Esso)

Gazprom is the world’s largest extractor of natural gas and holds 17% of world gas reserves. It is the largest company in Russia by revenue and headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. Gazprom Neft (formerly Sibneft) is the third largest oil producer in Russia

Pemex is Mexico’s state oil company. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization of all private oil companies in Mexico

Petrobras is a state-owned Brazilian oil company. It was created in 1953 under the government of Brazilian president Getulio Vargas with the slogan "The Oil is Ours". Operation Car Wash was a criminal investigation into money laundering and corruption at Petrobras

Rosneft became the world's largest publicly traded petroleum company after acquiring TNK-BP in 2013. Headquarters of the state-owned company are in Moscow. In February 2022, BP announced that it would divest its 19.75% stake in Rosneft

Saudi Aramco is the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia. It is the largest oil corporation in the world with the second-largest proven crude oil reserves and the largest daily oil production. Popularly known just as Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company). First struck oil in 1938. Revenue in 2021 was US$400 billion

Shell, formerly Royal Dutch Shell Group, was created in 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd merged their operations. The Shell logo is known as the "pecten" after the sea shell Pecten maximus

Sonatrach is the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. Founded in 1963, it is the largest company in Africa

Pharmaceuticals

Astrazeneca was founded in 1999 through the merger of the Swedish Astra AB and the British Zeneca Group. Address of headquarters is 1 Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge. Developed the Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Bayer headquarters is in Leverkusen. Bayer's first major product was acetylsalicylic acid (originally discovered by French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853), a modification of salicylic acid or salicin, a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow plant. By 1899, Bayer's trademark Aspirin was registered worldwide for Bayer's brand of acetylsalicylic acid. Bayer marketed heroin as a cough treatment in 1895

Eli Lilly and Company was founded in Indianapolis in 1876 by, and named after, Colonel Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and veteran of the American Civil War. Eli Lilly was the first company to mass-produce the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, and insulin

GlaxoSmithKline was founded in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. Headquarters are in London. The company developed the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S. Healthcare products include Aquafresh, Macleans and Sensodyne toothpastes, Night Nurse, Corsodyl, and Nicorette

Gruenenthal was the first company to introduce penicillin into the German market in the post-war period, after the Allied Control Council lifted its ban. In the 1960s, Grunenthal became infamous through the development and sale of the morning sickness drug Thalidomide

Johnson & Johnson was founded by three brothers in 1886 to manufacture ready-to-use sterile surgical dressings. Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical arm is Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Consumer products include Band-Aid, Tylenol, Johnson's Baby products, and Neutrogena

Merck & Co. is headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey. It is named after the Merck family, which set up Merck Group in Germany in 1668. Known as Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the United States and Canada. The company develops medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products

Novartis is a Swiss company formed in 1996 by a merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. Novartis divested its agrochemical and genetically modified crops business in 2000 with the spinout of Syngenta in partnership with AstraZeneca

Novo Nordisk is a Danish company and is the world’s largest producer of insulin. Diabetes treatments account for 85% of Novo Nordisk’s business

Pfizer was founded in 1849 in New York by two German immigrants, Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles F. Erhart. Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, was discovered in 1989 while looking for a treatment for heart-related chest pain. Pfizer and their partner BioNTech were the first companies to develop and test a working vaccine for COVID-19

Roche was founded in 1896 in Switzerland by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche. Company headquarters are in Basel. Roche is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. American biotechnology corporation Genentech is a subsidiary of Roche. Novartis owns one-third of the shares in Roche

Sanofi is headquartered in Paris. The company merged with Aventis in 2004. It is the world's largest producer of vaccines through its subsidiary Sanofi Pasteur

Professional services

Accenture began as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. In 2001, Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, that is derived from "Accent on the future". Based in Dublin

Arthur Andersen was one of the world's largest multinational corporations, but in 2002 it surrendered its licenses to practice as accountants after being found guilty of crimes in the firm's auditing of Enron, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2001

Deloitte (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd) is one of the Big Four accounting organizations and the largest professional services network in the world by revenue. Founded by William Welch Deloitte in London in 1845

Ernst & Young is known as EY. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms. The firm's current partnership was formed in 1989 by a merger of two accounting firms: Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co

KPMG stands for "Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler". The initialism was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) merged with Peat Marwick in 1987. Headquarters are in in Amstelveen, Netherlands

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was created in 1998 by a merger between two accounting firms: Coopers & Lybrand, and Price Waterhouse. PwC is the fourth-largest privately owned company in the United States

Publishing

Hachette is a French publisher founded in 1826. Publishers owned by Hachette UK include Hodder& Stoughton, Orion Publishing Group, and Little, Brown Book Group

Northern & Shell is currently owned by Richard Desmond, It publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, and the magazines OK!, New!, and Star. Northern & Shell also owned three entertainment television channels: Channel 5, 5* and 5USA until 2015

Panini is a company headquartered in Modena named after the Panini brothers who founded it in 1961. The company produces books, comics, magazines, stickers, and trading cards. Mexico 70 series was Panini's first FIFA World Cup trading card collection

Pearson is the largest education company and was once the largest book publisher in the world. In 2013 Pearson merged its Penguin Books with German conglomerate Bertelsmann and now focuses solely on education. Edexcel is owned by Pearson

Penguin Random House was founded in 2013 upon the completion of a £2.4 billion transaction between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group. In 2020 Bertelsmann agreed to acquire Pearson's 25% stake in Penguin Random House, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Penguin Books was founded in 1935 by Allen Lane as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head. Random House was founded in America in 1927 and is the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. Dorling Kindersley (DK) is part of Penguin Random House

RELX is a British-Dutch multinational. It was previously known as Reed Elsevier, and was founded in 1992 as a result of the merger of Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and Elsevier, a Netherlands-based scientific publisher

Restaurant chains and coffee shops

Berni Inn was a chain of British steakhouses, established in 1955 by brothers Frank and Aldo Berni. Sold to Whitbread in 1995, who converted the outlets into their own Beefeater restaurants

Burger King headquarters are in Miami. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville-based restaurant chain. The “Whopper” was added to the menu in 1957. The first Burger King restaurant in the UK opened in London in 1977

Caffé Nero was founded in 1997 by Gerry Ford, and currently runs more than 1000 coffee houses in eleven countries. Harris + Hoole and Coffee#1 are subsidiaries of Caffé Nero

Chick-fil-A is the largest restaurant chain whose specialty is chicken sandwiches. The company's values are influenced by the Christian religious beliefs of its late founder, S. Truett Cathy, a devout Southern Baptist. Reflecting a commitment to Sunday Sabbatarianism, all Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed for business on Sundays, as well as on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Best-known slogan is "Eat Mor Chikin"

Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. It was acquired by Whitbread in 1995, and sold in 2019 to The Coca-Cola Company in a deal worth £3.9 billion. Costa is the second largest coffee house chain in the world with over 3,400 stores, and the largest in the UK

Dairy Queen (DQ) is a chain of fast food restaurants and ice cream parlours. Founded in Illinois in 1940.

Dixy Chicken is a fast food chain that specializes in halal chicken. The company was founded in 1986, and has 110 outlets within the UK

Domino’s Pizza was founded by Tom Monaghan in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States, behind Pizza Hut. In 2012, Domino's Pizza changed their name to simply Domino's. At the same time, Domino's introduced a new logo that changed the formerly all-red domino to be blue on the side with two dots and red on the side with one dot

Dunkin’ Donuts was founded by Bill Rosenberg in 1950. Purchased by Inspire Brands in 2020. Advertised by Fred the Baker who was known for his catchphrase "Time to make the donuts!"

Five Guys is a burger chain founded in Virginia in 1986 by Janie and Jerry Murrell; Jerry, alongside the couple's four sons, Jim, Matt, Chad, and Ben, were the original "Five Guys"

Frankie & Benny’s is a chain of Italian American-themed restaurants in the United Kingdom run by The Restaurant Group. In October 2021, the chain cut its name in half by renaming itself "Frankie's"

Hard Rock Cafe was founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton. The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in Mayfair in 1971. In 2007, the chain was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida. In 2021, Hard Rock bought the Mirage casino in Las Vegas from MGM Resorts for $1 billion

IHOP (International House of Pancakes) is a United States-based restaurant chain that specializes in breakfast foods. Founded in Los Angeles in 1958. In 2007 IHOP purchased Applebee’s

Itsu is a British chain of East Asian-inspired fast food shops and restaurants, founded in 1997. Logo is a butterfly with the slogan “eat beautiful”

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930. The first KFC franchise opened in Utah in 1952. England had the first overseas branch of KFC which opened in Preston in 1965 and was the first American fast food restaurant chain in the country. The chicken pieces are seasoned with Sanders' recipe of 11 herbs and spices. Best-known slogan is "It's Finger Lickin' Good!"

Little Chef was founded in 1958 by Sam Alper. In 1986 it acquired Happy Eater. Little Chef specialised in the Olympic Breakfast and Jubilee Pancakes. The mascot was ‘Fat Charlie’. All restaurants closed by the end of 2018

McDonald’s is the world's largest restaurant chain by revenue, serving over 69 million customers daily. The company was founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California. The Golden Arches logo was introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent and proceeded to purchase the chain from the McDonald brothers. Big Mac was introduced in 1967. Chicken McNuggets were introduced in 1981. In 2020, McDonald's announced McPlant, a plant-based burger. McDonald’s first restaurant in Britain opened in Woolwich in 1974, selling Big Macs for 45p. There are now over 1300 restaurants in Britain

MOD Pizza is a United States-based chain of casual dining pizza restaurants. Part of a growing trend of "DIY" pizza restaurants where customers prepare their own pizzas by specifying specific ingredients. MOD stands for "Made on Demand"

Nando’s is a South African multinational fast food chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Their logo depicts the Rooster of Barcelos, one of the most common symbols of Portugal

Papa John’s is the world’s third-largest pizza delivery company. Founded by John Schnatter in 1984 when he converted a broom closet in the back of his father's tavern

PizzaExpress was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot. First restaurant was in Wardour Street in London. PizzaExpress has supported the jazz community from its early days. In 2014 the group was sold to the China-based private equity firm Hony Capital

Pizza Hut took orders online in 1994. Founded in 1958 in Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. The chain has more than 17,000 restaurants worldwide, making it the world's largest pizza chain by number of locations

Pret a Manger (French for ‘ready to eat’) was founded by Jeffrey Hyman in 1983. In 2019, Pret bought rival chain Eat

Quiznos was the second-largest submarine sandwich shop chain in North America, after Subway, but closed 1000 stores between 2007 and 2009. In 2014, Quiznos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Rainforest Cafe is a jungle-themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's, Inc. of Houston, Texas. It was founded by entrepreneur Steven Schussler. The first international location opened in Piccadilly Circus in 1997

Starbucks was founded in Seattle in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker. Named after the Moby-Dick chief mate on the Pequod, Starbuck. The company logo is a green circle with an image of a siren. Starbucks entered the UK market in 1998 with the $83 million acquisition of the Seattle Coffee Company. It is the world's largest coffee house chain with over 33,000 stores

Subway was founded by 17-year-old Fred DeLuca and financed by Peter Buck in 1965 as Pete's Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The restaurant was renamed Subway two years later, and a franchise operation began in 1974. It is the largest single-brand restaurant chain, and the largest restaurant operator in the world, with over 37,000 stores. Slogan is “Eat Fresh”

Taco Bell serves a variety of Mexican-inspired foods. Founded in California by Glen Bell in 1962

TGI Fridays stands for “Thank God Its Friday”. American casual dining chain founded in New York in 1965

Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service restaurant chain. Founded by Tim Horton, an ice hockey defenceman who played 24 seasons in the National Hockey League

Wahaca (phonetic spelling of the Mexican State of Oaxaca) is a UK restaurant group selling Mexican-style street food, co-founded by Thomasina Miers

Wagamama is a British restaurant chain, serving Asian food based on Japanese cuisine. The word Wagamama is Japanese for "self-indulgent", and is often translated by the brand as "naughty child"

Wendy’s is a burger chain founded by Dave Thomas in Ohio in 1969 and is named after his fourth child. Slogan is “Where’s the beef?”

YO! Sushi franchises conveyor belt sushi restaurants, and opened its first restaurant in Soho in 1997. Founded by Simon Woodroffe, who appeared as a "Dragon" on the first UK series of Dragons' Den

Yum! owns more than 43,000 restaurants. Created in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. from PepsiCo's fast food division as the parent corporation of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

Retail

Arcadia Group was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and Warehouse. Philip Green was the chairman. In 2019, it was reported that the Arcadia Group had recorded a £300m deficit in its pension fund. The company entered administration in 2020, and all the brands were sold off by administrators to online retailers, mainly ASOS and Boohoo

B&M is a British-Luxembourg variety store chain founded in 1978 by Malcolm Billington

British Home Stores (BHS) opened its first store in Brixton in 1928. The company entered administration in 2016 following unsuccessful attempts to continue trading

Bloomingdale’s was founded in New York City by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. It is a subsidiary of Macy’s. The company headquarters and flagship store are located at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York

Boots was established in 1849, by John Boot. After his father's death in 1860, Jesse Boot, aged 10, helped his mother run the family's herbal medicine shop in Nottingham, which became Boot and Co. Ltd in 1883. It is a subsidiary of Walgreen Boots Alliance

Costco operates a chain of membership-only retail stores. It opened is first warehouse in Seattle in 1983. It now has over 800 warehouses worldwide. In 2021, Costco was ranked tenth on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue

Currys became a major retailer of household electrical items in the 1960s. In 1984 the company was bought by rival retailer Dixons. Dixons Retail began a trial combining Currys and PC World shops in 2008. After the formation of Dixons Carphone in 2014, the stores gained Carphone Warehouse departments. By 2021, all outlets rebranded as Currys

DFS Furniture was formerly Direct Furnishing Supplies. Based in Darley Dale in Derbyshire

FAO Schwarz, founded in 1862, is the oldest toy store in the United States. The company is known for its unique high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, dolls, and games

Habitat was founded in 1964 by Terence Conran. The first store was opened in Fulham Road. In 1986, the company merged with British Home Stores to form Storehouse plc. Habitat is now the main homewares and furnishings brand within the Sainsbury's group

Halfords is the UK's largest retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. The company was founded by Frederick Rushbrooke in Birmingham in 1892 as a wholesale ironmongery. In 1902, Rushbrooke moved to a store on Halford Street in Leicester and started selling cycling goods

Harrods opened the current store on Brompton Road in 1849. It is the biggest department store in Europe. Harrods was sold to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, in 2010. The only overseas branch was opened in Buenos Aires in 1914

IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. The first store opened in Almhult, Sweden in 1958. The first UK store in Warrington opened in 1987. The acronym means – Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd (the farm where Kamprad grew up), and Agunnaryd (his hometown in Sweden). IKEA has been the world's largest furniture retailer since 2008. Notable items of IKEA furniture include the Poang armchair, the Billy bookcase and the Klippan sofa

John Lewis flagship store on Oxford Street began as a drapery shop, opened by John Lewis in 1864. In 1905 Lewis acquired a second store, Peter Jones in Sloane Square. His son, John Spedan Lewis, founded the John Lewis Partnership in 1920. Price promise is “never knowingly undersold”. Christmas television advert was first launched in 2007

Kaufhaus des Westens (German for 'Department Store of the West'), usually abbreviated to KaDeWe, is a department store in Berlin. It is the second-largest department store in Europe

Kmart was founded in 1962 and was the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Walmart and Target. From 2005 to 2009, Kmart was a subsidiary of Sears. By 2022, only ten stores remained in operation

Liberty was founded by Arthur Liberty in 1875 to sell ornaments, fabrics and miscellaneous art objects from Japan and the Far East. It is associated with Art Nouveau and its bold and floral print fabrics

Macy’s was founded in New York in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. Its flagship store is located at Herald Square in Manhattan. In 2020, Macy's was ranked as the leading department store in the United States, with sales amounting to US$17.35 billion

Marks & Spencer was founded in Leeds Kirkgate Market as a penny bazaar in 1884. The company was founded by a partnership between Michael Marks, a Belarusian Jew, and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from Yorkshire. In 1998, the company became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion. St Michael was a brand owned and used by Marks & Spencer between 1927 and 2000

Pets at Home is the largest pet supplies retailer in UK. The first store was opened in Chester in 1991, by Anthony Preston. The company operates 453 stores

Poundland was established in 1990 by Dave Dodd and Stephen Smith. Poundland acquired closest rival 99p Stores in 2015, which left Poundworld as their closest competitor until it went bankrupt in 2018

Sears was founded in 1892. and was the largest retailer in the United States in the 1980s. Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018

Selfridges was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store on Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK (after Harrods) and opened in 1909. There are two other Selfridges stores in Manchester, and one in Birmingham

Specsavers was founded in 1984 by husband and wife team Doug and Mary Perkins on the island of Guernsey. Advertising campaigns are based on the strapline "Should've gone to Specsavers"

Superdrug is the second-largest health and beauty retailer in the UK, behind Boots. The company was founded in 1964, under the name of Leading Supermarkets Limited, by the Goldstein brothers in London. The business kept this name until 1966 when it was officially changed to Superdrug

Target is the second largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. It operates around 2000 stores. The Target logo is a red bullseye

Toys "R" Us was founded by Charles Lazarus in 1957. The logo features a backwards "R" to give the impression that a child wrote it. The mascot is Geoffrey the Giraffe. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018

Walmart was founded in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 by Sam Walton. It has over 10,000 stores in 24 countries. Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue and is also the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees

WH Smith was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening news-stands on railway stations, beginning with Euston in 1848. It was the first retail chain in the world. In 1998, the company acquired John Menzies' retail outlets

Woolworth was one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. The first Woolworth store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth in 1879, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" in Utica, New York. The first store in the UK opened in Liverpool in 1909. Woolworths became well known for its "pick 'n' mix" sweet selections. The chain went out of business in 1997

Sports equipment and sportswear

Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe. The company was founded in 1949 by Adolf Dassler, following a family feud between him and his older brother Rudolf. Rudolf had earlier established Puma, which quickly became the business rival of Adidas. The three stripes branding was bought in 1952 from Finnish sports company Karhu Sports for the equivalent of €1,600 and two bottles of whisky

Amer Sports brands include Salomon and Wilson.  Established in 1950, the company is based in Helsinki

ASICS is a Japanese sports equipment company founded in 1949. The name is an acronym for the Latin phrase “anima sana in corpore sano” which translates as "a healthy mind in a healthy body"

Burton Snowboards was founded in 1977 by Jake Burton Carpenter. The flagship store is in Burlington, Vermont

Everlast is an American brand of sports equipment, focused on boxing, mixed martial arts and physical fitness. Founded in The Bronx in 1910

Hummel is a Danish sportswear company. Current kit manufacturer for Everton and Southampton. The company logo is a bumblebee

JD Sports is based in Bury. The letters JD stand for the initials of the founders of the company, John (Wardle) and David (Makin). Subsidiaries include Blacks, GO Outdoors, and Millets

Li-Ning is a Chinese sports equipment and sportswear company founded by former Olympic gymnast Li Ning, who won six medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Mizuno Corporation was founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. The company has signed sponsorship deals with Carl Lewis, the All Blacks rugby team, Joe Montana, Ivan Lendl, and Nick Faldo. The corporate logo is known as the Runbird

Nike was originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports and was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in 1962. The company initially operated as a distributor for Tiger, a Japanese maker of sports shoes. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The slogan “Just Do It” was coined in 1988 at an advertising agency meeting. The Nike Swoosh corporate trademark was created in 1971 by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson, who was paid $35 for her work. Nike is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon

O’Neill is originally a Californian surf wear and surfboard brand started in 1952 by Jack O'Neill, who is credited to have invented the wetsuit. The company logo symbolizes a breaking surf wave.

Puma was founded by Rudolf Dassler in 1948. Puma and Adidas both have their headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria

Quiksilver is based in Huntington Beach, California and is one of the world's largest manufacturers of surfwear and other boardsport-related equipment. The company logo was inspired by Hokusai's woodcut The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The parent company changed its name in 2017 from Quiksilver, Inc. to Boardriders, Inc.

Reebok was founded in Bolton in 1958. The name is Afrikaans for the grey rhebok, a type of African antelope. Reebok officially became an American company in 1985. Adidas acquired Reebok as a subsidiary in 2005. In March 2022, Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group for $2.5 billion

Sports Direct was founded in 1982 by Mike Ashley. The company is the UK's largest sports goods retailer and operates over 600 stores worldwide. In December 2019, Sports Direct International, which attracted criticism from politicians and investors over working conditions and its approach to business, announced plans to rebrand itself as Frasers Group

Umbro is based in Cheadle, near Manchester, and was founded in 1924. Umbro's kit debut was in the 1934 FA Cup final, when both teams wore kits designed and manufactured by the company. The England team in the 1966 World Cup wore Umbro shirts. Nike bought Umbro in 2007, and sold the company to Iconix Brand Group in 2012. The company logo is a “double diamond”

Under Armour is an American sports equipment company founded by Kevin Plank. The first product was a new T Shirt built from microfibres that wicked moisture and kept athletes cool, dry and lightweight

Supermarkets

Aldi is a discount supermarket chain founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in Essen in 1946. The name Aldi is an abbreviation for Albrecht Diskont. The business is split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud groups, and operates over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The first UK store opened in Birmingham in 1990

Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited in 1949 in Leeds. The adoption of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of supermarkets and Associated Dairies; Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies. Asda was acquired by Walmart for £6.7 billion in 1999. The Competition and Markets Authority blocked a merger with Sainsbury’s in 2019

Iceland is a British supermarket chain focused mainly on frozen food. It began business in 1970, when Malcolm Walker opened the first store in Oswestry. In 1988, Iceland bought its larger rival Bejam. In 2016, the Icelandic government filed a legal challenge to have the company's trademark invalidated

Kroger is the United States' largest supermarket chain by revenue and the second-largest general retailer behind Walmart. It operates over 2,700 grocery stores

Lidl history goes back to the 1930s, when Lidl & Schwarz Grocery Wholesale was founded in Germany. Since then, Lidl has diversified into hypermarkets under the trading name Kaufland and discount food stores known as Lidl. Today, the Schwarz Group is one of the largest grocery retailers in Europe. Lidl opened its first UK store in 1994

Morrisons was founded in 1899 by William Morrison. It began as an egg and butter stall in Rawson Market, Bradford. The company acquired Safeway in 2004

Netto is a Danish-based chain of discount supermarkets and is owned by the Salling Group. The UK stores were sold to Asda in 2010

Sainsbury’s is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the UK, behind Tesco. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London. Sainsbury’s acquired Home Retail Group in 2016 – the deal included Argos and Habitat. The loyalty scheme is called Nectar

Spar was founded in the Netherlands in 1932 by retailer Adriaan van Well. "Spar" is Dutch for "spruce tree", after which the logo was chosen

Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname, and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. It is the largest chain of supermarkets in the UK. Tesco opened a chain of stores in Thailand known as Tesco Lotus

Waitrose was founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor. It was acquired in 1937 by John Lewis Partnership, which still sells groceries under the brand. The company has a royal warrant to supply groceries, wine, and spirits to Queen Elizabeth II

Tobacco

Altria Group is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco and cigarettes. Altria is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, whose brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges, Parliament, and Chesterfield

British American Tobacco (BAT) is one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. It was formed in 1902, when the UK's Imperial Tobacco Company and the United States' American Tobacco Company agreed to form a joint venture. BAT purchased Reynolds American in 2017. Brands include Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Winfield, State Express 555, KOOL, Viceroy, and Rothmans

Davidoff is a Swiss luxury tobacco goods brand name, which sells a range of products including cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes and pipe tobaccos

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American. Brands include Camel, Newport, Doral, Eclipse, Kent and Pall Mall

Conglomerates

3M was founded in 1902 as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. Brands include Post-it Notes and Scotch Tape

Danaher has three divisions – Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Environmental & Applied Solutions. Pantone and Leica Microsystems are owned by Danaher

General Electric (GE) was formed through the 1892 merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira. The company's first product was an induction motor. The name Hitachi comprises two kanji characters: hi meaning "sun" and tachi meaning "rise"

Honeywell was founded in Wabash, Indiana in 1906 by Mark Honeywell, who developed a hot water home heating system

ITC Limited was established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, succeeding W.D. & H.O. Wills as a British-owned company registered in Kolkata. ITC Hotels owns over 100 hotels in India

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is a French multinational corporation specializing in luxury goods. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton (founded in 1854) with Moët Hennessy, which was established after the 1971 merger between the champagne producer Moët & Chandon (founded in 1743) and the cognac producer Hennessy (founded in 1765). In 2021 with a valuation of $329 billion, LVMH became the most valuable company in Europe. Subsidiaries include Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Loewe, Fenty, Princess Yachts, TAG Heuer and Bulgari. The chairman and CEO is Bernard Arnault, whose net worth is around US$155 billion

Mitsubishi was established as a shipping firm in 1870. The name Mitsubishi can be translated as “three diamonds”, which is reflected in the company logo. During the Second World War, Mitsubishi manufactured military aircraft. The four main companies in the group are MUFG Bank (the largest bank in Japan), Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Panasonic was known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. from 1918 to 1935, after the founder Konosuke Matsushita, who invented a new light socket. Sanyo is a subsidiary of Panasonic. Technics is a brand name used by Panasonic for audio equipment

Raytheon Technologies researches, develops, and manufactures advanced technology products in the aerospace and defence industry. The company was formed in 2020 by merger between the aerospace subsidiaries of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and the Raytheon Company. Pratt & Whitney is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies

Reliance Industries is the largest company in India as measured by revenue and is India’s largest exporter. Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and managing director, and his net worth is around US$100 billion. The Ambani family live in Antilia, a private 27-storey building in Mumbai, which was valued at US$1 billion and was the most expensive private residence in the world at the time it was built

Samsung is the largest South Korean chaebol. The company was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Samsung comprises around 80 companies. Its activities include construction, consumer electronics, financial services, shipbuilding and medical services

Siemens was founded in Berlin in 1847, and built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe in 1848. It is the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe and is a constituent of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

Sony was founded in 1946. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955. The company's slogan is “Be Moved”. It has net cash reserves of 2 trillion yen

SoftBank Group is a Japanese holding company. It runs the Vision Fund, the world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund, with over $100 billion in capital. Masayoshi Son is the founder, chairman, and CEO of SoftBank

Tata Group is India’s largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries. Founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata