List of Quaker businesses, organizations and charities

This is a list of notable businesses, organizations or charities originally founded by Quakers. Many of these are no longer managed or influenced by Quakers. At the end of the article are businesses that have never had any connection to Quakers, but some people may believe that they did or still do.

Businesses, organizations or charities with Quaker origins

A

• American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace and social justice organization founded in 1917.
• Amnesty International, human rights organization; Eric Baker was a founding partner.
• Albright and Wilson, Manufacturing chemists.

B

• Barclays Bank, finance.
• Bethlehem Steel, founded by Quaker entrepreneur Joseph Wharton.
• Bradshaw's, Victorian and Edwardian publisher of the most widely used railway timetables in Britain, Europe and India, founded by Quaker George Bradshaw.
• Bryant and May, former match manufacturing company, founded by two Quakers, Francis May and William Bryant.

C

• Cadbury plc, chocolate and drinks manufacturer, was founded by Quaker John Cadbury, and expanded by Quaker sons Richard and George
• Carr's, UK biscuit manufacturer.
• CHUM Limited, a major Canadian media company, which was founded by Ted Rogers, Sr, a former caretaker of Pickering College who invented the radio tube.
• Clarks, shoe manufacturer.
• Coalbrookdale Company, iron manufacturer.
• Cornell University, Ivy league educational institution in Ithaca, New York, US.
• Crosfield's, a British chemicals company founded in 1814 by Quaker Joseph Crosfield, now a subsidiary of Ineos.
• Cully&Sully, Irish food producer, famous for its award-winning pies.

D

• Duane Morris, now one of the 100 largest law firms in the US, and still committed to Quaker values.

E

• ExelTech Aerospace, Canadian aircraft maintenance and repair company.

F

• Friends Provident, life assurance company, was founded by Quakers Samuel Tuke and Joseph Rowntree.
• J. S. Fry & Sons, chocolate manufacturer.

G

• Greenpeace, campaigning environment organization — The four founding members include Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe of Vancouver Monthly Meeting.

H

• Hilton, Anderson, Brooks, & Co, a Victorian cement producer that became the largest employer in Essex, England, founded by Quaker Edmund Wright Brooks.
• Humane Resources Ltd, a UK business claiming to provide ethically sound, practical and affordable advice and support with employment disputes;
• Huntley and Palmers biscuits, manufacturer in Reading, Berkshire.
• Huntsman, steel manufacturer.
• Hussey Seating Co., a North Berwick, Maine manufacturer of stadium and gymnasium seating systems, founded by the Hussey family in 1835.

I

• The Inman Line, a Victorian passenger shipping line on the North Atlantic, founded in 1850 by Irish Quaker industrialist John Grubb Richardson and Englishman William Inman.

L

• Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB), finance.

M

• Marigold Health Food, a London-based health food distributor founded in 1975 by Quaker entrepreneur David Swinstead.
• Miami Beach Improvement Company, the first land developer in Miami Beach, was founded in 1911 by Quaker John S. Collins.
• Mount of Olives, an Irish company founded by Richard Kimbell, imports and distributes olives from Jenin in the West Bank and distributes all profits to youth projects and schools.

N

• Neptune Works, also known as Wigham Richardson, a British shipbuilder founded in 1860 by John Wigham Richardson that pioneered steel construction for ships; it later merged with Swan Hunter to become the largest shipbuilder of its day.

O

• Oxfam, charity.

P

• PQ Corporation, chemical industry firm. Founded Philadelphia Quartz by Philadelphia Quaker businessman Joseph Elkinton in 1831.

Q

• Quakers & Business, charity
• Queen City Oil Company, headquartered in Toronto, was founded by Samuel and Elias Rogers and evolved into Imperial Oil, which is now the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon.

R

• Renovaré, an interfaith group founded by Richard J. Foster.
• Robert Roberts, a large Irish tea and coffee company founded in 1905 by the Quaker Goodbody family; with roots that reach back to the 1700s through a merger with Baker Wardell, founded by Quaker John Wardell.
• Rowntree's (now Rowntree Mackintosh, owned by Nestlé), chocolate manufacturer was founded by Quaker Joseph Rowntree

S

• Sandy Hill Bank, founded in 1868 by Quaker farmers, is now the largest bank in the state of Maryland, USA.
• Scott Bader Commonwealth, a British manufacturer of advanced resins and composites, founded by Ernest Bader in 1951.
• Strawbridge and Clothier, (now part of Macy's) department store chain, USA (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware).
• Sony (formerly Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, or Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering, Co.); TTK's founding board president was Tamon Maeda, a Japanese Quaker, prewar Japanese ambassador to ILO, and postwar Minister of Education.
• Stockton and Darlington Railway, established in 1825 by Quaker Edward Pease, operated the world's first permanent steam locomotive-hauled railway line.

T

• Terry's, UK chocolate manufacturer.

W

• Waterford Crystal, a former producer of crystal glass was founded by Quakers in 1783, however this company closed in 1851. The modern Waterford Wedgwood was not founded by Quakers, being the merger of a separate Waterford Crystal company founded in 1947 by non-Quaker Charles Bacik, and Wedgwood, founded by the Unitarian, Josiah Wedgwood.

Businesses with no Quaker connection

• Quaker Oats Company, food manufacturer.
• Quaker Funds, an investment firm.
• Quaker State, motor oil brand.

External links

• BBC article on Quakers successes in business