The Falkland Islands Company traces to 1842, when Governor Richard Moody published a pamphlet advertising the islands' commercial potential, describing forty thousand head of wild cattle "ready to be exploited by a well financed commercial organisation". Samuel Fisher Lafone, a merchant, acted on this: in March 1846 he signed a contract in London granting him the sole right to kill and subdue the wild cattle on the southern peninsula of East Falkland and adjacent islands — the area that still bears his name today, Lafonia. To finance the venture, promoters issued "A Preliminary Prospectus of the Royal Falkland Land, Cattle, Seal and Whale Fishery Company," valuing the prospective assets at £212,000, including £120,000 in land and £80,000 in wild cattle.[1][2]
The City of London's interest was substantial enough that in January 1851 a company was formed specifically to purchase Lafone's rights and interests, and a preliminary meeting of "The Falkland Islands Company" was held on 24 April 1851. Queen Victoria granted the company a Royal Charter to Trade on 10 January 1852, with an authorised capital of £100,000. The Charter's stated objectives were taming wild cattle, developing sheep farming, establishing a general store, and providing postal communications between the islands, the mainland, and Europe. Lafone himself became a major shareholder in the newly chartered company, and his brother-in-law John Dale was appointed its first Colonial Manager.[3][4][1]
Slow Start, Then Sustained Growth Under Cobb
The company's early years fell short of expectations. Real progress only began in 1867, when the board appointed a new Colonial Manager, Frederick E. Cobb, who arrived in Stanley aged just 22 but proved capable of setting the company on a path to prosperity. Cobb laid the foundations of a farming enterprise that sustained the company for the following century; he resigned as Colonial Manager in 1891, was appointed Managing Director back in England, and later became Chairman.[1]
Peak Landholding and the Shift Away From Agriculture
By 1945, the company's agricultural land holdings had grown to roughly 1.2 million acres, supporting about 300,000 sheep — at its height, FIC controlled almost half the total land area of the Falkland Islands. Ownership of the company itself changed hands over the 20th century: it came under Coalite's ownership, and Coalite was subsequently acquired by Anglo United plc in a leveraged buyout.[2][5][6][3]
The company's dominant landholding position ended in the wake of the 1982 war. Lord Shackleton's economic report on the islands recommended land reform, and in 1991 the Falkland Islands Government purchased FIC's agricultural land holdings — equating to about one quarter of the total farmland in the islands at that point — leading to the creation of the Falklands Landholdings Corporation, a statutory body set up to run the acquired farms. This was part of a broader land reform process that had begun in 1980, when the government acquired and subdivided large corporate farms like Roy Cove and Green Patch into smaller, family-run units; the islands now have around 70–84 mostly family-owned farms averaging roughly 10,000 hectares each, a sharp contrast to the 36 large "corporate" farms that existed before 1979.[7][8][3]
What the Company Does Today
Having exited large-scale agriculture, FIC pivoted into a diversified services business. It is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of FIH Group plc, a publicly quoted company on London's AIM market, and as of 2011 owned roughly 400 acres of land in the islands plus 40 residential rental properties, alongside operations spanning retail, motor vehicle sales and hire, property, insurance, cruise-ship and fishing-vessel agency services, and freight/shipping. As of 2025, FIC employs 173 people and remains headquartered in Stanley. FIH Group's own history notes that in 2016 the parent group renamed itself from "Falkland Islands Holdings" to "FIH Group plc" specifically to reflect that the bulk of the group's activities had shifted to Europe and the UK, though the Falklands business remains described as "a core part of the Group".[5][6][2][3]
Sources
[1] Company History https://www.the-falkland-islands-co.com/about-us/company-history/
[2] Falkland Islands Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands_Company
[3] FIH group plc / Company Profile / History http://www.fihplc.com/company-profile/history.php
[4] Our Islands, Our History https://www.gov.fk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Our-Islands-Our-History.pdf
[5] About us https://www.the-falkland-islands-co.com/about-us/
[6] Falkland Islands Company (FIC) http://www.fihplc.com/company-profile/falkland-islands-company.php
[7] Falkland Islands Department of Agriculture https://www.falklands.gov.fk/agriculture/
[8] Farms, Camp, Falkland Islands https://falklands-southatlantic.com/farms.html
[9] Farming on the peatlands of the Falkland Islands https://www.ukfit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MCADAM-FARMING-ON-FALKLANDS-PEATLANDS-FINAL-VERSION2-TO-SHEFFIELD.pdf
[10] Falkland Islands Company Ltd Careers and Employment https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Falkland-Islands-Company-Ltd
[11] West Falkland Islands.: Main Point Farm https://www.mainpointfarm.com/
[12] The Falkland Islands Company Raises $100K Funding https://www.trysignalbase.com/news/funding/the-falkland-islands-company-raises-100k-funding
[13] Falkland Islands History - Everything You Need to Know https://www.swoop-antarctica.com/cruises/falkland-islands/history
[14] Falklands Landholdings Corporation https://www.facebook.com/FILandholdings/?locale=en_GB
[15] falkland islands - company. https://nationalarchives.gov.fk/jdownloads/FIC Collection/Administration/Annual Reports 1852-1854.pdf
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