Elders Limited, Australia’s longest-established pastoral agency, dates its founding to 1839, when Alexander Lang Elder arrived in the new settlement of Adelaide aboard his father’s ship, the Minerva.  His father, George Elder, was a merchant and ship-owner based in Kirkaldy, Scotland. Alexander brought with him rum, whisky, brandy, tar, fish, biscuits, tinware, gunpowder, agricultural machinery and seed and set up business as the local agent for the family business.

Alexander’s brothers, William, George and Thomas, all followed him to Adelaide during the following decades. However, the only one to make Australia his permanent home was Thomas, who arrived in 1854. By this time, Alexander had expanded the company’s interests to include pastoral enterprises, a gasworks, and a metal-broking business dealing in the colony’s newly discovered copper resources. He returned to London in 1855 to act as an agent for the Adelaide firm.

In 1856, Thomas formed Elder, Stirling & Co. with three partners, including his brother-in-law, Robert Barr Smith. Upon the retirement of two of the partners in 1863, the firm was renamed Elder Smith & Co. In addition to becoming one of the world’s largest wool sellers, Elders acquired pastoral properties, eventually amassing a landholding larger than the whole of Scotland. Elder Smith & Co. became a public company in 1888.

Thomas Elder, by then Sir Thomas, died in 1897, but through the first half of the 20th century the company went from strength to strength, surviving droughts and financial crises. In 1962, the firm amalgamated with the rival stock and station agent, Goldsborough Mort, to form Elder Smith Goldsborough Mort Limited. Further takeovers in the 1970s saw Elders build a dominant market share.

Then came the 1980s, a decade when corporate raiders like Robert Holmes a Court and John Elliott were on the lookout for cash-rich, underperforming businesses. In 1981, Elliott engineered a reverse takeover that saw Elders buy Henry Jones IXL, to form Elders IXL, a sprawling company with brewing, agribusiness, resources and finance businesses. It all came unstuck with the share market crash in 1987.

Elders found itself as a subsidiary of the Foster’s Group, before being refloated as a stand-alone company in 1993. In 1996, it was bought by the Futuris Corporation, originally a railway technology company.  The financial ups and downs continued for almost two decades, until Elders divested itself of various businesses and shareholdings to focus, once again, on agribusiness.

With branches all around Australia, Elders Limited deals in what it calls “farm inputs”, from fertiliser, agricultural chemicals and animal health to hats and boots. As brokers, the company deals in grain, wool and other commodities. It also owns a financial services business, agronomy services, rural real estate business, saleyards, feedlots and a beef processing operation.

In 2024, research organisation Roy Morgan named Elders as Australia’s most trusted agribusiness brand. “Elder’s success can be attributed to five factors: strong customer relationships, good customer service, experienced and knowledgeable staff, long-standing presence, and reliable products and services,” they said.