John Swire & Sons Limited is the UK-headquartered parent company of the Swire group, dating its history back to 1816 and the establishment by John Swire (1793-1847) of a small import-export business in Liverpool. His son, John Samuel Swire (1825-1898) took the firm overseas by opening offices in Melbourne in 1855, then London in 1864, Shanghai in 1866, Yokohama in 1867, Hong Kong in 1870 and New York in 1874.

Swire came to China to trade in woollen and cotton piece goods, to export tea and silks, and to become agent and Far Eastern manager for the newly established Liverpool shipping company, Blue Funnel Line. The Greater China region quickly became the centre of Swire's operational activities as the firm diversified into shipping, insurance, sugar refining and dockyards; after World War II adding airlines and a range of aviation-related services, property development and management, soft drink production, logistics services and farming to its portfolio.

John Swire & Sons acts as overall co-ordinator of Swire group policy and also provides management and advisory services throughout the group and its subsidiaries, which today employ more than 127,000 people worldwide.

In addition to its 41.46% shareholding in the publicly-quoted Swire Pacific Limited, John Swire & Sons Limited controls a range of wholly owned businesses worldwide. These include all of the group's interests in Australia, where Swire is the leading cold storage provider, and a major national provider of transportation and materials handling services.

In Papua New Guinea, its interests come under the mantle of the historic trading group, Steamships Trading Company; John Swire & Sons holds the majority shareholding in this public company, which is listed on the Sydney stock exchange. John Swire & Sons also has major cold storage interests in the USA, through United States Cold Storage, and in agricultural businesses in East Africa and Sri Lanka, through James Finlay Limited. The company controls the Swire group's deep-sea shipping interests worldwide, which are held through The China Navigation Company − one of the UK's oldest shipping companies.

John Swire & Sons has offices in London, Hong Kong, Sydney, and in Beijing, Papua New Guinea, the USA, Taiwan, and Vietnam.