America turns 250 this year, but one New Jersey distillery beat that milestone by 78 years. Laird & Co., still run by the Laird family, has been making apple brandy in Colts Neck since 1698. According to a Wall Street Journal feature, George Washington was reportedly a fan of its signature applejack. Two Laird brothers fought beside him at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, two years before the company was formally registered.
Older Than the United States
Laird & Co. became a formal business in 1780, in the middle of the Revolution. Today it is the country's leading seller of American apple brandy, with exports to 18 markets including Australia, China, France, Italy and the UK. The signature applejack is still made with the same recipe, using the same kind of apple-crushing machine and charred-oak barrels used three centuries ago.
Three Pivots That Kept Laird's Lights On
Every generation has had to scramble to survive. When Prohibition shut down American distilleries, Laird & Co. switched to making applesauce and sweet cider. In 1933, it received Federal Liquor License No. 1, which allowed it to keep distilling apple brandy for medicinal use. During World War II, it made pectin, a preservative used in military food rations. When Covid hit, the family pivoted again and started producing hand sanitizer from its beverage alcohol stock. In the 1970s, with brown-spirit sales falling, it diversified into contract bottling for other liquor brands.
Most family businesses do not get this far. Only 4% make it past the fourth generation, according to the US Small Business Administration.
How Nine Lairds Ended Up Owning the Whole Company
Keeping ownership in the family took some bruising fights. In 1973, then-CEO Jack Laird sold a 90% stake to two liquor companies. His brother Larrie was furious. "It ended with a fight with my brother in the company parking lot," Larrie, now 86, told the WSJ. Two decades later, the family raised a $10 million bank loan and bought the stake back. The shares are now held in trusts meant to keep the business under family control for the next generation.
Nine Laird family members now own the entire company. Lisa Laird Dunn, 65, is its first female CEO. Her two Gen Z children, Gerard and Laird Emilie, already work there. Gerard, the executive vice president, told the WSJ that first-quarter online sales are up 300% year on year. She also pushed through a packaging overhaul 20 years ago that her board hated; applejack sales jumped 49% within five years.
