Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., one of Hawaii’s oldest publicly owned companies, began as a sugarcane partnership between Samuel T. Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin on Maui in 1869.  Hawaii-born sons of missionaries, Alexander and Baldwin invested in 12 acres of land in an area between Paia and Makawao in upcountry Maui.
 
In 1878, to ensure water supply to their crops, Henry Perrine Baldwin undertook the development of an irrigation ditch from mountains streams and rivulets on Haleakala – the island’s dormant eastern volcano – to Central Maui.  Thus, the Hamakua Ditch Company, known today as East Maui Irrigation Company (EMI) became A&B’s first – and oldest – subsidiary.
 
Throughout the last three decades of the 19th century, Alexander and Baldwin acquired more land, neighboring plantations and formed several companies, incorporating in Hawaii as Alexander & Baldwin, Limited in 1900.  One of the Maui companies was Kahului Railroad Company (KRR), presently known as Kahului Trucking & Storage.  On Kauai, A&B operated McBryde Sugar Company and Kauai Commercial Company. What once were McBryde’s sugarcane fields are now the state’s largest coffee estate, Kauai Coffee Company.
 
At the turn of the century, A&B invested in Matson Navigation Company to ensure transportation of its sugar to the refinery on the West Coast.  Since the turn of the century, Matson has been involved in the development of tourism in Hawaii through its luxury liners and Waikiki hotels, wartime duty during World War II and the introduction of containerization in the Pacific. As the principal carrier of containerized freight and automobiles between the West Coast and Hawaii, Guam and Mid-Pacific and now providing service from two ports in China direct to the U.S. West Coast, Matson is A&B's largest subsidiary.   Matson Integrated Logistics  (MIL) is a leading provider of multimodal transportation and distribution services throughout North America.

Recognizing the need for reasonably priced homes for plantation and railroad employees, A&B formed the Kahului Development Co. in 1949, which developed more than 3,500 homes in Central Maui. It soon became A&B Properties, Inc. and began developing residential, commercial and industrial areas on Maui , as well as on Kauai. After 60 years of activities, A&B Properties develops and manages residential, commercial and resort projects on the four major Hawaiian Islands and the U.S. West Coast, and manages an income portfolio of more than 9 million square-feet of improved property in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland. 

The A&B Foundation draws from each of these subsidiaries to support community needs throughout the islands of Hawaii and in key communities on the U.S. mainland.