It’s no wonder so many famous and successful family owned businesses can be found in Florida.  Ranked as one of the top business oriented cities in 2013, it’s the perfect state to build your empire.

Here are just a few successful businesses that have made their mark in Florida.

The Lykes Family

The Lykes Family owns over 615,000 acres in which half of them are in Florida. That puts the heirs and his seven sons on the land’s report list of the largest landowners. This company employs over 400 in land management which is in charge of caring for cattle, sugar cane, forest land, citrus as well as insurance. They also finance energy saving companies and have developed with the Duda family’s 5,000 acre logistics center which is located at an industrial park in Glades County.

The Colliers

The Colliers are the descendants of the company founder Barron Collier who had control over 280,100 acres, based on the figures of the authorities. This is enough to make them 27^th on the list of the nation’s biggest landowners. This land consisted of ranches, citrus, farming, timberland and farming vegetables as well as oil wells and even commercial office space. The main entities are Barron Collier and Collier Enterprises.

The Griffins

Griffins had a legal brawl that was very public and it was over his estate of over $500 million, in which the fight was settled and Griffins had control over the LaBelle who traded a citrus company under the control of Griffin’s grandson who was the former state senator. Control of this was up in the air but the Naples value investor had a history of activism and recently took a portion of this company. The changes that took place pertaining to taxes have prompted Alico as the majority shareholder. That’s an entity that is controlled by a descendant to Griffin and that was when they recommended that Alico look into selling the whole company.

Alfonso Fanjul

Alfonso Fanjul, Jose, and Pepe Fanjul Jr. owned over 155,000 acres in Florida. That makes the Palm Beach family the 63^rd largest joint land owner in the entire nation. They are the largest employer and the landowners in the Dominican Republic; the major shareholder of the largest sugar refiner in the world, and also have mills refineries throughout six countries. They  sell sweeteners and sugar under domino, Florida Crystals and other brand names.

The Dudas

The Duda family is based in Oviedo and this is a company that has built over 47,000 acres as well as leased another 23,000 throughout Florida, California as well as Texas. They have also produced growing, marketing and packing. They have cattle, sugar cane, the development of real estate, citrus and Sod. They also have many investments in commercial real estate throughout 19 different states. Some of the 14 descendents and five of the spouses work in the family owned business. It is David J. Duda who is now the man who runs the company and there is $460 million in revenue that was built up last year. They also employed a total of 550 full time workers.

Conclusion

From the Lyke family to Pepe Fanjul Jr., his is a list of Florida’s most famous family businesses and most of the residents in Florida know very much about these families being that it was passed on from generation to generation. It will be interesting to see how they flourish within these next few years.