In 1878 Thomas and Christopher Furness commenced shipowning, in 1883 Christopher Furness purchased an interest in the shipyard of Edward Withy and in 1884 bought the company outright. In 1885 Christopher Furness collaborated with Thomas Wilson to form the Wilson-Furness Line to operate services between Newcastle and New York. By 1891 the fleet contained 18 ships and Furness, Withy & Co was founded. Furness, Withy & Company, Ltd (FW) was incorporated in 1891. The company was an amalgamation of the ships, investments and offices of Christopher Furness and the Middleton shipyard and dry docks owned by Edward Withy & Co. In 1898, four years after the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal, Sir Christopher Furness took the lead in the formation of Manchester Liners Ltd (ML), a shipping company which was to trade mainly with Canada and certain destinations in the USA. FW subscribed slightly less than half of the original share capital.

The first subsidiary company was formed in 1892 as the Chesapeake & Ohio Steamship Co. Ltd and a joint service to Boston was started with Frederick Leyland & Co. In 1896 the Wilsons & Furness-Leyland Line was formed. A new firm, Manchester Liners Ltd was formed in 1898 and the rights of the Canadian & Newfoundland SS Co, were acquired the same year. The Wilsons & Furness-Leyland Line with their London - New York service was sold in 1901 to the International Mercantile Marine Co., but in 1902 Furness, Withy purchased Gulf Line Ltd with their trade to South Africa and Australia. Management of Neptune S.N. Co. was taken over in 1906 and the fleet was purchased in 1910. The same year, Agincourt SS Co. and Norfolk & North American Steam Navigation Company were acquired. In 1911 a 50% holding in Houlder Bros & Co. was purchased plus the coastal London Welsh SS Co. 1912 saw the purchase of George Warren's White Diamond Steamship Company. and a new company, George Warren & Co. (Liverpool) Ltd was formed. A half share in Johnston Line was purchased in 1914 and in 1916 Prince Line Ltd was bought. By this time the Furness, Withy group owned 215 ships.

Over the years the Furness Withy Group expanded by the purchase of a number of other shipping companies and their fleets and consolidated its position as a leading shipping group. By 1951 it operated 81 ships with a total tonnage of 680,000 gross registered tons.

In the 1950s  Furness Withy Group along with Blue Star Line and British & Commonwealth Shipping Group owned 72% of British United Airways (BUA). The remaining 28% was shared among the Clan Line (8%), Loel Guiness (10%) and Whitehall Securities (10%). But in 1961 these various shareholdings were reorganised into Air Holdings as a new holding company for the entire group. In January 1962, British Aviation Servies joined Air Holdings. Britavia and Silver City Airways were its airline subsidiaries. P&O Group was the largest shareholder with a 70% stake, while Eagle Star and Cable & Wireless were minority shareholders that respectively owned 20% and 10% of its share capital. In 1962, Jersey Airlines, a former "BEA associate", and Silver City Airways joined the BUA group of companies. The operations of these airlines were reorganised into BUA (C.I.), British United (Manx) Airways and British United Air Ferries (following the merger of Channel Air Bridge and Silver City Airways on 1 January 1963.  In late 1964, Air Ferry joined the BUA group of companies as a consequence of Air Holdings' acquisition of Leroy Tours, Air Ferry's owners, thereby restoring the cross-Channel vehicle ferry services monopoly of British United Air Ferries.

In the late 1960s due to declining fortunes of BUA Group it was reorganised. BUA (Holdings) became the new holding company for BUA and British United Island Airways (BUIA), which combined the "second-level" scheduled operations of BUA (C.I.) and British United (Manx) Airways under the new name of Channel Islands and Manx Air Services (CIMAS) and "third-level" charter activities of Morton Air Services, as well as the BUA group's stakes in Bristow Helicopters, Gambia Airways, Sierra Leone Airways and Uganda Air Services.  Air Holdings, the old parent company of the unreconstructed BUA group, became a separate holding company for British Air Ferries (BAF) — the new name adopted by British United Air Ferries in 1967 — and Aviation Traders. It also assumed ownership of Air Ferry, Airwork Services, the BUA group's tour operators (Leroy Tours, Lyons Tours and Whitehall Travel). The reorganisation also involved the British & Commonwealth Shipping Group buying out all the other shareholders in BUA (these included Blue Star Line, Furness Withy Group, Clan Line, Loel Guiness, Whitehall Securities, P&O Group and Cable & Wireless) apart from Eagle Star for £17m in May 1968. Thus Furness Withy Group's involvement in BUA ceased. Furness Withy and P&O's involvement in aviation had dated back to their early support for Airwork and Silver City Airways from 1948. 

Since then the Furness Withy Group has continued to grow by acquisition. In the 1960s the Furness Withy Group bought out the minority interests in Prince Line, Cairn Line, Shaw Savill and British Maritime Trust, and in 1965 the Royal Mail Lines group of companies (Royal Mail) became wholly owned by the purchase of the balance then held by other investors. The Houlder group of companies, in which the Furness Withy Group had a substantial interest, became subsidiaries in 1968 and wholly-owned in 1974. In 1970, the Furness Withy Group increased its interest in Manchester Liners from 42 per cent to 53.6% following a formal offer in that year for the issued Manchester Liners ordinary share capital not already held by it. A complete take over of Manchester Liners by Furness Withy, being a cash offer, was resisted successfully by the then board of Manchester Liners and certain Mancunian interests.

Overseas Containers Ltd (OCL) was the largest British container consortium and was formed in 1966 by British and Commonwealth Shipping Group, Furness Withy Group, Ocean Transport and Trading Ltd (Alfred Holt Group) and the P&O Group. The aim of the consortium was to develop and operate container services on those trade routes in which its partners operated, with the intention of preserving a major British interest in these trades. The United Kingdom/Australia trade was the first to be containerised in 1969 and this was followed by the Far East trade. These will soon be followed by the containerisation of the New Zealand trade and the United Kingdom/Europe/South African trade as well as three trades in the Pacific basin.  In 1986 all the partners were bought out by P&O Group and the operation was renamed P&O Containers Ltd. In 1996 this was merged with Nedlloyd Line and formed P&O Nedlloyd. This was later transformed into a stand alone company as Royal P&O Nedlloyd and finally in 2005 was bought entirely by the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and merged with Maersk Sealand to form Maersk Line. 

Furness, Withy & Co was sold to C. Y. Tung, Hong Kong in 1980 but the new owners gradually disposed of the ships and in 1990, the Tung group sold Furness, Withy (Shipping) Ltd to Rudolf A. Oetker who controlled Hamburg South America Line. In 1998 the name of the firm reverted to Furness, Withy & Co, Ltd and today has been merged within the Hamburg Sud Group. Thus Furness Withy ceased to exist as an independent company.

Thus the Furness Withy Group, one of Britain's great shipping groups, disappeared due to mergers and consolidation in the shipping industry and globalisation. It is truly the end of a glorious era.