I heard a news story about an English company that had been successful since about 1200 and filed for bankruptcy in the last ten years. I heard it reported on NPR's Morning Edition, in early spring of 2004 I believe. I'm quite good at using Google, but have been completely unable to find a reference to it. I found the story interesting since it is very unusual for such a successful enterprise to fail after 800 years. Any hints on how to find the company name would be appreciated (I'll accept a sufficient hint as an answer).
BTW, I was listening to Ithaca, NY radio station WSKG.
[Response to comments:] I'm pretty sure it was a merchant/store and not merely an inn/pub or guild. There was definitely a mention of a singular head, owner or CEO of the company. I'm pretty sure it was a family business or private enterprise, though it might have been publicly traded more recently. Perhaps it rebounded or was restructured more recently, since I can't find any news items in my searches.