Headquartered in London, John Swire & Sons Ltd. is Swire's parent company, maintaining close links with a family of constituent companies around the world. John Swire & Sons is responsible for formulating overall policy, as well as providing a wide range of management services and centralised support functions for Swire.

John Swire & Sons' Hong Kong-based quoted subsidiary, Swire Pacific, has business activities that concentrate on the Asia Pacific region, and specifically on Mainland China and the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong. In addition to its involvement in Swire Pacific, John Swire & Sons has a very significant stake in the cold storage markets in Australia and the USA, and its growing Australian portfolio includes road transportation and distribution services, and arable and livestock farming. John Swire & Sons also controls the major trading group in Papua New Guinea, Steamships Trading Co., and through London-headquartered James Finlay, has substantial agricultural interests in Africa and Sri Lanka. The company's ship-owning element, China Navigation, trades internationally, but its managed liner services concentrate mainly on the Western Pacific and Australasia.

• The China Navigation Company Ltd. (CNCo)
  The China Navigation Co. Ltd. is the wholly-owned deep-sea shipping arm of John Swire & Sons Ltd. The company is UK-registered and has established Owner's Representative offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the United States.

CNCo's owned fleet comprises of 17 multi-purpose vessels and one panamax bulk carrier. The company's managed liner services charter all 17 vessels from CNCo and in addition charter in another 27 multi-purpose vessels.

CNCo's managed liner services serve over 120 ports worldwide. CNCo has also developed diversified drybulk interests involving a Capesize pool and bulk logistics activities.

The main managed liner services are:

• Swire Shipping Ltd.
  Swire Shipping Ltd. (UK) is a leading provider of multi purpose liner shipping solutions, offering a comprehensive port-to-port coverage within its core trading area of the South Pacific, Asia and Australasia. Swire Shipping operates nine liner trades, including westbound and eastbound round the world services.

  Swire Shipping's fleet of multipurpose vessels is capable of carrying a wide range of general/unitized cargoes (including heavy and bulky project lifts), breakbulk parcels (steels, forest products), vegetable oils, bulk parcels as well as containerized cargoes (general and refrigerated).

• Tasman Orient Line (TOL)
  TOL is jointly owned by CNCo and the Ahrenkiel Group. TOL is the leading independent liner shipping service linking New Zealand, Asia and the South Pacific.

  TOL operates three separate services linking New Zealand, New Caledonia and Fiji with many of the major cargo gateways in the Asia Pacific region, as well as the key regional and niche ports.

  TOL's multipurpose vessels are designed to carry a versatile mix of containers and breakbulk cargo. TOL regularly carries wood products, steel commodities, construction materials, general cargo and project cargo.

• Polynesia Line
  CNCo also has a long-standing interest in Polynesia Line, a liner trade connecting the West coast of the USA with Tahiti, Samoa and American Samoa.

• Swire CTM Bulk Logistics
  Formed in 2008, Swire CTM Bulk Logistics is a 50:50 joint venture between CNCo and C Transport Maritime (CTM), the commercial arm of DryLog, a 100% subsidiary of Ceres Shipping. The company offers tailor-made offshore marine logistics solutions for loading/discharging cargo in challenging locations, and is experienced in the design, build (or conversion from existing tonnage) and operation of transhipment vessels, bulk transfer barges, floating cranes and other specialist ships.
• Quadrant Pacific Ltd.
  Quadrant Pacific, in which CNCo has a 61% shareholding, operates shipping agency and stevedoring services in New Zealand and jointly controls a shipping agency business in Fiji.
• Swire Oilfield Services Ltd.
  Swire Oilfield Services is a key provider of transportation equipment and other essential services to the offshore oil industry. Swire Oilfield Services operates throughout the North Sea from strategically located bases in the UK, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands, and has also developed a significant presence in several West African nations. Its fleet of over 32,000 cargo-carrying units includes aviation fuel and chemical transportation tanks, waste compactors and an extensive range of specialised dry freight containers, cargo baskets, mud skips, freezer units and pressurised modules. Swire Oilfield Services also provides comprehensive bulk storage and distribution of oilfield chemicals.
• James Finlay Ltd.
  Founded in 1750, James Finlay is one of the world's best-known and respected tea companies, with operations ranging from 'tea bush to teacup'. Wholly owned by John Swire & Sons Ltd., the company has extensive tea estates interests in East Africa and Sri Lanka, which are complemented by global tea trading, packaging, and tea extraction processes that add value to the base leaf-tea product.

  James Finlay produces 50 million kilos of black tea every year from plantations in Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka. Finlay Tea Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary, trades worldwide in black tea, green tea and tea extracts, including instant teas and aromas, and in decaffeinated teas for the Japanese, Middle-Eastern, European and American markets. The Finlay group has packaging operations in Sri Lanka and the UK, as well as substantial tea extraction production facilities in East Africa and China, producing a variety of specialist products for well-known local and international beverage producers. In the UK, Finlay Beverages packages private label teas, coffees and speciality teas for a number of clients, including leading UK supermarket chains, Sainsbury's, Asda and the Co-op.

  In addition to tea, Finlay's tea estates interests also include the cultivation of rubber in Sri Lanka, and an expanding commercial timber business in East Africa and Sri Lanka. Finlay Flowers has 92 hectares of greenhouses in Kenya, from which it exports 100 million stems of roses, carnations, lilies, freesias and alstromerias every year to major clients in the UK, Europe, the Middle-East, Australia, Japan and USA. Finlay Flowers is also to develop a cut-flower production facility in conjunction with partner Hilverda Plant Technology in Songming County, 57kms north of Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan Province. In addition to its flower growing activities, Finlays markets and sells flowers on the Continent and North America through Omniflora, a wholly owned subsidiary based in Germany.

  Finlay, through wholly owned Flamingo Holdings, is involved in horticultural businesses, including growing, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution of cut flowers and fresh vegetables for the UK market.

  Non-tea estates activities include a number of agencies in Sri Lanka, ranging from insurance to aviation. James Finlay Colombo is also developing a temperature-controlled logistics business and a new cold storage facility has been constructed to that end.

Property Division

Swire Hotels

Swire Hotels, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Swire Properties Limited, is developing and will manage a collection of luxury boutique hotels to be launched in 2009. Properties have been acquired in Bristol, Exeter, Cheltenham and Brighton.