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Fidelity and Market Basket’s parent company landed among America’s biggest family-run firms.
A Fidelity Investments branch in Boston.
A new Forbes report ranking the nation’s largest family businesses includes two Massachusetts companies with deep local roots: Fidelity Investments and Market Basket’s parent company.
The list spotlights America’s top family businesses as the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday.
“With their deep roots in communities across the country, these family businesses account for an estimated 25 percent of U.S. companies and 23 percent of the American workforce,” Forbes said in its report.
Fidelity Investments, controlled by the Johnson family, ranked No. 14 on the list, while Tewksbury-based Demoulas Super Markets came in No. 69. Fidelity brings in $37.7 billion in annual revenue, while Demoulas Super Markets earns $8 billion yearly, according to the report.
Forbes said its rankings are based on measuring the nation’s largest multigenerational family businesses by revenue, including private and public companies in which founding families retain significant ownership and leadership roles. The list spans industries ranging from retail and agriculture to automotive manufacturing and hospitality.
Walmart topped the ranking with $713 billion in annual revenue, followed by Ford Motor, Cargill, and Koch. Fidelity was the highest-ranked financial services company on the list.
Nearly all of the private companies on Forbes’ list are more than 50 percent owned by their founding families, according to the magazine. However, Fidelity, which is roughly 49 percent owned by the Johnson family, still qualified since Abigail Johnson, granddaughter of founder Edward C. Johnson II, serves as chairman and CEO.
The Demoulas family owns 100 percent of their company, which traces its roots to a small Lowell grocery store opened in 1917 by Athanasios “Arthur” Demoulas and his wife, Efrosine.
The company has since grown into one of New England’s largest supermarket chains, operating stores across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island.
The Demoulas family’s long-running battles over control of Market Basket have continued in recent years. In April, a Delaware judge upheld the firing of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, ruling that the company’s board acted properly in removing the longtime executive after months of internal conflict.
Several large Massachusetts companies didn’t make the cut because Forbes’ methodology limited eligibility to multigenerational family businesses. That excluded the likes of New Balance, which brings in $7.8 billion annually, and the Kraft Group, which earns $6.7 billion, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.
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