The humble beginnings of the world’s biggest businesses
Daniel Coughlin
12 May 2021
Massive firms that started out small
As the age-old saying goes “mighty oaks from little acorns grow” and many of the world's biggest and most successful firms started surprisingly small. From Amazon to Zara, we reveal the humble beginnings of 50 of the planet's largest businesses.
Hermès started out as a harness workshop
French luxury goods company Hermès is famed for its covetable Birkin bag, sumptuous silk scarves and high-end perfumes, but the venerable firm, which turns over billions of dollars a year, actually started out making harnesses, saddles and bridles for the carriage trade. Founder Thierry Hermès opened his decidedly unglamorous equestrian accessories workshop in Paris in 1837.
Boots originated as a modest herbalist store
Walgreens' parent company also owns the UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer Boots. Like its counterpart across the pond, the British chain of chemists started out with just one location, a small shop at 6 Goosegate, Nottingham, which was opened in 1849 by company founder John Boot and sold herbal remedies concocted by his mother.
Coca-Cola was first served in an Atlanta drugstore
Georgia-based pharmacist and morphine addict John Pemberton, who was desperate to cure his addiction, invented an alcoholic drink in the 1860s containing cocaine and caffeine. When Atlanta enacted prohibition legislation in 1886, Pemberton worked with drugstore owner Willis E Venable to create a non-alcoholic variant, which was named Coca-Cola. The drink was first served in Atlanta's Jacobs' Pharmacy on 8 May 1888. The last trace of cocaine in the formula was eventually removed in 1903.
Kroger began as a bijou grocery store
America's largest supermarket chain grew from just one tiny grocery store. In 1883, its eponymous founder Barney Kroger used his entire life savings of $372, which is $9,755 (£6,900) in today's money, to open a small grocery store on Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. Kroger was very picky about the products he stocked and sold bread and other baked goods, which differentiated his store from the competition and cemented its success.
Walgreens began as a single drugstore
America's number one pharmacy came into being in 1901 as a diminutive neighbourhood drugstore measuring just 50 feet by 20 feet. The pharmacy, located on the corner of Bowen and Cottage Grove Avenues in Chicago, was opened by Charles R Walgreen, who launched 19 stores by 1920. Interestingly, the chain owes much of its early success to prohibition during the 1920s. It made a killing selling prescription whiskey, which was legal at the time.
Nordstrom was founded as a small shoe store
Swedish immigrant John W Nordstrom lucked out in the Klondike Gold Rush, cashing in to the tune of $13,000, around $96,000 (£67,900) in today's money. The plucky entrepreneur made a beeline for Seattle in 1901 and invested the money in a shoe store called Wallin & Nordstrom. The company expanded in the 1950s but didn't become a fully fledged department store chain until the 1960s.
Harley-Davidson built its first motorcycle in a backyard shed
Iconic American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson actually started out in a backyard shed. Company founders William S Harley and Arthur Davidson assembled the first real Harley-Davidson motorcycle in 1904 in a 10 foot-by-15 foot shed located in the Davidson family's backyard in Milwaukee. The shed was preserved for posterity at the firm's Juneau Avenue factory but was accidentally destroyed in the early 1970s.
UPS had just one motorised delivery vehicle in its early days
The precursor to UPS was founded by James Casey and Claude Ryan in Seattle in 1907 and delivered packages on foot or by bicycle at the outset. The company's first motorised delivery vehicle was a sole Model T Ford, which was purchased in 1913. Today the global logistics giant has a fleet of around 125,000 package cars, vans, tractors and motorcycles.
Aldi began as a small grocery store
Aldi is the brand name of two Teutonic discount supermarket chains, which together have over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. Both businesses were born in 1913 when Frau Anna Albrecht opened the compact Karl Albrecht grocery store in a low-income suburb of Essen, Germany. The dinky store sold 'spirituosen' (spirits/alcohol) and 'lebensmittel' (foodstuffs).
Tesco started out as a market stall
One of the world's largest supermarket groups, Britain's Tesco, which operates stores in seven countries in Europe and Asia, was founded in 1919 by Polish immigrant Jack Cohen as a stall in Well Street Market in the East End of London. Cohen sold war-surplus groceries and didn't open his first store until 1931.
The Walt Disney Company's first studio was Walt Disney's uncle's garage
Today, the Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, but its origins are very humble indeed. Back in 1923, Walt Disney created his first Hollywood cartoon film Alice's Wonderland in a small garage behind his uncle Robert's home at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in Loz Feliz, Los Angeles.
Delta Air Lines began as a crop-dusting operation
The world's second-largest airline today, Delta's origins are exceedingly humble. Delta started out in 1924 in Georgia as a crop-dusting operation using just one plane, which sprayed insecticide to combat a boll weevil infestation of cotton crops in the Deep South.
7-Eleven was launched as a stand selling basic groceries
The world's largest chain of convenience stores originated in 1927 when Southland Ice Company employee John Jefferson Green began selling basics like eggs and bread on a stand in front of one of the firm's ice houses in Dallas. Company chairman Joe C Thompson loved the concept and opened several locations in Texas. The chain's name was changed to Tot'em Stores then 7-Eleven in 1946 to reflect its long opening hours.
KFC began as a single service station cafe
The world's second-largest fast food chain, KFC has a total of 22,621 locations in 136 countries. The chain started mega-small in 1930 when its famous founder Colonel Harland Sanders snapped up a Shell service station on Route 25 just outside North Corbin and began selling fried chicken and other diner staples such as country ham and steaks to hungry travellers.
Lidl began as a humble fruit wholesaler
Like Nordstrom, German discount supermarket chain Lidl was a bit of a late developer. The company was founded in 1930 as a small, independent wholesaler specialising in fruit, but didn't actually open its first retail store until 1973. By the late 1980s, the chain had become a household name in Germany and began expanding internationally in the 1990s.
Samsung was originally a tiny grocery store and trading firm
Now one of the world's largest conglomerates, South Korea's Samsung, which encompasses everything from electronics to shipbuilding and insurance, began in the city of Daegu in 1938 when Lee Byung-chull established Samsung Sanghoe, a small grocery store and trading company that sold dried fish, noodles and other groceries.
Hewlett-Packard's first HQ and factory was a garage
Like so many other super-successful firms it preceded, Hewlett-Packard was started in a garage. Back in 1939, Stanford University grads Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard launched their tech company in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California and produced their first successful product there, a precision audio oscillator. The garage, which has since been converted into a museum, is widely regarded as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
McDonald's started as a food stand
After relocating to Hollywood from New Hampshire, the McDonald brothers opened a food stand called the Airdrome on Route 66 adjacent to LA County's Monrovia Airport in 1937. The compact stand started off selling hot dogs – hamburgers were added later along with all-you-can-drink orange juice. The octagonal stand was moved to San Bernardino in 1940 and the family started franchising the concept in 1955.
IKEA was established with a cash reward for good grades
Ingvar Kamprad, who died in 2018, founded IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17 with a small sum of cash his father gave him for studying hard and doing well in his high school exams. The company is named after his intials and the first letters of the town in which he grew up – Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd. Kamprad started off selling pencils, postcards and other small items via mail order which he stored in a little shed outside the family home before moving into furniture.
Walmart owes its origin to a franchised five and dime store
Entrepreneur Sam Walton made his first foray into retail in 1945 when he paid $25,000, which is $351,000 (£248,300) in today's money, to franchise a Ben Franklin five and dime store in Newport, Arkansas. Buoyed on by the store's success, Walton opened the tiny Eagle department store and then a five and dime in Bentonville, Arkansas before lauching the very first Walmart location in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962.
Mattel originated in a garage
Another hugely successful business that started out in a garage, Mattel, which has grown to become one of the world's biggest toy companies, was launched in 1945 out of a garage in Hawthorne, California by married couple Ruth and Elliot Handler and Harold “Matt” Matson. The firm first produced picture frames and then doll's house furniture upcycled from the picture frame scraps.
Ferrero started out as a modest liquor, candy and pastry shop
Italian confectionery colossus Ferrero has conquered the world with its Nutella spread and lavish chocolates, but the firm's origins are far from big. The business began life as a modest liquor, candy and pastry store in Piedmont, Italy. In 1946, patriarch Pietro Ferrero invented a hazelnut-based confection due to a shortage of chocolate and never looked back.
Dunkin' had just one store at the get-go
Dunkin', formerly Dunkin' Donuts, started in 1948 as a single doughnut store in Quincy, Massachusetts that sold the sweet treats along with cups of coffee. Founder William Rosenberg called it Open Kettle, then in 1950 changed the name to Dunkin' Donuts as suggested by an architect working for the firm, who enjoying dipping the store's doughnuts in the coffee.
Carrefour began as a relatively modest supermarket
Renowned for its gigantic hypermarkets, French retailer Carrefour, which operates in 30 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, originated in as a relatively modest round supermarket in Annecy, France. The multinational company was founded in 1958 and the first store opened its doors two years later.
Reliance Industries started out importing polyester yarn and exporting spices
Enormous Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries has interests in petrochemicals, retail, telecoms, and more, but the business started small. Dhirubhai Ambani and Champaklal Damani founded the enterprise in the early 1960s as a modest import/export company dealing in polyester yarn and spices.
Nike first operated out of the trunk of a car
Other major international companies started out modestly enough with a small shop or garage, but Nike trumps them all. The sportswear leviathan was founded in 1964 by college runner Phil Knight and his track coach Bill Bowerman in Eugene, Oregon with just $500, and operated out of the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant, from which Knight distributed Japanese Onitsuka Tiger running shoes.
Subway started with just one sandwich shop
These days Subway has tens of thousands of locations in over 100 countries but the chain started extremely small in 1965 with just one sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut called Pete's Super Submarines. The shop was initially named after co-founder and nuclear physicist's Dr Peter Buck's words to student Fred Deluca: "Let's open a submarine sandwich shop." It did a roaring trade, selling an average of 312 sandwiches a day, and owners Buck and Deluca franchised the concept not long after.
Southwest started as a strictly Texas-only airline
Southwest Airlines came into being on 15 March 1967 and started as a strictly Texas-only airline. Shrewdly, by flying exclusively within the Lone Star State, the airline avoided Civil Aeronautic Board regulations and price controls, enabling it to undercut the competition. The airline added its first routes outside of the state in 1978.
Virgin was initially a mail order company
Britain's Virgin Group has its fingers in many pots these days, from travel and aerospace to banking and fitness but, like the other massively successful businesses in our round-up, its origins were humble. Richard Branson set up Virgin in February 1970 as a mail-order business specialising in cut-price vinyl records.
Starbucks started out as a one-store coffee bean retailer
The very first Starbucks was opened at No 1912 Pike Place, Seattle on 31 March 1971 by three University of San Francisco grads and only sold coffee beans. The company stayed super-small until entrepreneur Howard Schultz bought it out in 1987 and embarked on an ambitious expansion plan.
Cardinal Health was a minor food wholesaler at the outset
Cardinal Health is one of the world's largest healthcare product distributors. But it wasn't always so flush with money. The company, which was founded in Ohio in 1971, was a minor food wholesaler during its early days and didn't start distributing pharmaceuticals until 1979.
Zara/Inditex originated as a single store called Zorba
Fast-fashion retailer Amancio Ortega and his late ex-wife Rosalía Mera opened the first Zara store in 1975 in A Coruña in northwest Spain, initially calling it Zorba after the Zorba the Greek. Fast-forward and the Inditex Group of which Zara forms part has thousands of stores in 93 countries and turns over tens of billions of dollars a year.
Amancio Ortega: the Zara founder's journey from poverty to billions
Whole Foods Market co-founders John Mackey and Rennee Lawson were forced to live in their first store
Whole Foods Market co-founders John Mackey and Renee Lawson borrowed money from friends and family in 1975 to set up their first business, a vegetarian natural foods store in Austin, Texas called SaferWay, and were forced to live in it for a time after they were evicted from their apartment. Two years later, the store merged with Clarksville Natural Grocery and Whole Foods Market was born.
Microsoft originated in an Albuquerque garage
Another incredibly successful company that was born in a garage is Microsoft. Originally named Micro-Soft, it was founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen in a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 4 April 1975. The fledgling computer firm started out developing software for the Altair 8800, the game-changing device that sparked the PC revolution.
Apple was born in a garage?
Apple was born in 1976 in the garage of Steve Jobs' parents in Los Altos, California, where Steve Wozniak worked on the the company's first prototype computer, which Jobs funded by selling his hippie van – so the story goes. Wozniak has admitted that the bulk of the work on the Apple I was done elsewhere and the garage thing is “a bit of a myth”. Still, the tech firm did start out very small.
Ben & Jerry's started out as a neighbourhood ice cream parlour
Now a subsidiary of Unilver, ice cream company Ben & Jerry's started out in May 1978 as an ice cream parlour in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield invested $12,000 to open the store.
Dell was also conceived in a university dorm room
Like Facebook, computer hardware behemoth Dell came about in a college dorm room. Michael Dell was just 19 and a student at the University of Texas at Austin when he created the company in 1984, which began by selling IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components, and traded under the name PC's Limited.
Ryanair began with just one route
Europe's biggest budget airline Ryanair had a very modest beginning. When the Irish carried was established in 1984, it operated just one route, from Waterford Airport in the Republic of Ireland to the UK's London Gatwick. By operating a very 'no-frills' service it undercut the competition. The airline carried 148.6 million passengers in 2020.
Amazon was created in a garage
Founder Jeff Bezos, now the world's richest person, created the game-changing e-commerce site Amazon in 1994 in the garage of his three-bedroom rented home in the Seattle suburb of West Bellevue. Incidentally, the house (pictured) sold for just over $1.5 million (£1.1m) in 2019.
easyJet started out with just two leased planes
The UK's number one budget airline, easyJet was founded by British-Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995. The airline was launched with two leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft and started out with just two routes, London Luton Airport to Glasgow and Edinburgh. In 2019, it carried over 96 million passengers.
eBay came into being as a hobby site created in a suburban living room
Online shopping and auctions giant eBay was created by programmer Pierre Omidyar in September 1998 as the AuctionWeb, a hobby project that was part of his larger personal website. Omidyar wrote the code for the site at home in suburban San Jose, California over Labor Day weekend. The first product listed was a broken laser pointer.
Google was founded in, yes you've guessed it, a garage
Like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, Google operated out of a garage during its early days. The search engine's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page rented a garage in Menlo Park, California from September 1998 for $1,700 a month courtesy of their friend and future colleague Susan Wojcicki, who was struggling to meet her mortgage repayments.
Alibaba was also launched from its founder's apartment
One of the world's biggest and most valuable companies, Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant Alibaba started out just 20 years ago in a tiny apartment. Founder Jack Ma created the firm in 1999 along with 17 friends in his poky pad in Hangzhou.
Spanx was launched from its founder's apartment
Entrepreneur Sara Blakely single-handedly developed and financed the shaping hosiery concept she named Spanx, and launched the brand from her Atlanta apartment in 2000, two years after coming up with the initial idea. At first, Blakely handled everything from sales and marketing to accounts. Today, Spanx turns over hundreds of millions of dollars a year and its products are worn by women and men worldwide.
Linkedin was also created in a suburban living room
Business networking service LinkedIn is an indispensable tool these days for professionals the world over and boasts over 740 million registered users but, believe it or not, the networking social media firm began in 2002 in co-founder Reid Hoffman's living room in Mountain View, California (pictured).
Facebook was conceived in a university dorm room
Facebook has achieved bona fide global domination, but it actually started out in a dorm room at Harvard University. Mark Zuckerberg created the first version of the social media network in his residence halls at the Ivy League institution and launched the site from his dorm room back in 2004 during his sophomore year.
YouTube's original HQ was a small office above a pizzeria and a Japanese restaurant
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim came up with the idea for a video-sharing site after finding it hard to share video shot at a dinner party, and founded YouTube on Valentine's Day 2005. The original HQ was a small office in San Mateo, California conveniently situated above a pizzeria and a Japanese restaurant.
Twitter was a side-project dreamed up atop a playground slide
A mere side project for failing podcast service Odeo, Twitter was actually thought up by web designer Jack Dorsey in March 2005 on the top of a playground slide during an informal brainstorming session in South Park, San Francisco. Dorsey was munching on a burrito at the time. The microblogging service was launched a year later, and the rest is history.
Airbnb started out with three air mattresses and a makeshift website
Back in 2007, roommates Joe Gebbia and Brain Chesky were struggling to pay the rent on their San Francisco loft apartment and decided to snap up three air mattresses they could hire out to paying guests. The duo hobbled together a simple website and Airbnb was born. Just 142 years down the line and the site offers millions of lodging options worldwide and floated last year.
Instagram began as a side-hustle created at a rented desk
The photo and video-sharing social network started out as a side-hustle and was created in 2010 by software professionals Kevin Strysom and Mike Krieger at a rented desk in a shared office in San Francisco that lacked proper heating, so the pair had to wear their coats while developing it. Little did they realise that two years later their bright idea would be snapped up by Facebook for $1 billion (£763m).
Now take a look at some of the most unusual trademark battles
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature