Family Business Stories with Fexingo: Succession, Legacy, and Multi-Generational Companies

When digital photography arrived in the 1990s, it seemed to spell the end for Leica, the legendary German camera maker that had been family-run for nearly a century. Competitors like Nikon and Canon embraced the new technology, while Leica stubbornly stuck to film. This episode explores how the Kaufmann family, which had owned Leica since 1910, navigated near-bankruptcy, internal family strife, an...

What happens when a family business scales from a single outfitter shop to a global luxury house without losing its identity? In Episode 6 of Family Business Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dig into Burberry—the 170-year-old British label that went from Thomas Burberry's waterproof gabardine to the iconic trench coat, then nearly lost its way in the 1990s. They trace how the founding family's...

Episode 5 of Family Business Stories with Fexingo turns to Scandinavia. Lucas and Luna unpack how the Wallenberg family — through their holding company Investor AB — has controlled or influenced Swedish industrial giants like Ericsson, Atlas Copco, and SKF for over 160 years. The episode focuses on the 'Wallenberg sphere', a unique structure combining a foundation, a publicly-listed holding compan...

Episode 4 of Family Business Stories with Fexingo takes you inside one of the oldest family-run retail empires in Europe: C&A, the clothing chain founded in 1841 by the Brenninkmeijer family. Lucas and Luna explore how nine generations have kept control private, why the family rotates CEOs every seven years, and the tension between tradition and the fast-fashion era. You'll learn about the 'Brenni...

Leaning into a messy wooden desk in the Ferrero headquarters in Alba, Italy — that's where Pietro Ferrero created the first batch of hazelnut-chocolate paste in 1946. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace how a single kitchen recipe became an $11 billion empire spanning Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, and Ferrero Rocher. They focus on one decisive moment: how the second generation, Michele Ferrero, prof...

The Johnson family has run SC Johnson for five generations since 1886 — surviving world wars, the Great Depression, and the rise of global competitors like Procter & Gamble. In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at the specific mechanisms the family used to keep control while still attracting top outside talent. They unpack the role of the 'family constitution' drafted in the 1950s, the selective o...

In the premiere episode of Family Business Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the mechanics of the Mars family — the secretive clan behind M&Ms, Snickers, and Pedigree pet food. With over $45 billion in annual revenue and zero public shareholders, Mars Inc. is one of the largest private companies on earth. Lucas explains how the family has managed succession across four generations, fr...