An association for family businesses has launched a branch in Sussex.

The Stoy Centre for Family Business (SCFB), the UK's longest-established family business research and networking organisation, will operate from the Brighton offices of accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward.

In the UK, three-quarters of all private sector firms are family owned, employing up to half the country's workforce.

Worldwide, some of the most successful companies are family owned and run - many of them household names.

Although the sector is alive and well, it faces a unique set of challenges.

Less than 30 per cent of businesses survive to the second generation and less than 13 per cent to the third.

The SCFB was launched in 1993 and has built a national framework for owners and managers of family businesses to exchange information and ideas, attend seminars and have access to publications and research papers on running a business.

Matt Coward, who will head SCFB in Brighton, said: "The organisation was established nearly a decade ago exclusively to raise the profile and serve the needs of family businesses that dominate the UK's private sector and upon whose success so many people depend.

"With each passing generation, there is a hidden calamity of family businesses not making it through.

"We are now able to put our expertise to good use in supporting and advising Sussex family- owned businesses."

Bill Shearer, head of services and membership at Sussex Enterprise, said: "We estimate there are 25,000 to 30,000 family businesses in Sussex.

"We will work closely with Matt and organisations like the SCFB to support this important sector of the county's economy."

www.scfb.co.uk