The name Alexander & Baldwin Inc. hasn’t significantly changed in the last century, but lines of business for the 141-year-old Hawaii firm have been all over the place.

Oil, insurance, stock in other companies, pineapple, coffee, sugar refining — all were A&B businesses at one time, but no more.

So the plan announced Thursday to shed ownership and operation of Matson Navigation Co. is not an unusual event for A&B from a historical perspective.

However, Matson and its ocean cargo transportation service are one line of business that dates back longer and is more deeply intertwined with A&B than other operations previously acquired and later shed.

A&B’s connection with Matson dates back 103 years when A&B, founded as a sugar cane plantation on Maui, made a $200,000 minority investment in the California-based transportation firm. At the time, the operation started by Capt. William Matson was only 7 years old.

Over time, Matson was integrally involved in shipping sugar for A&B — so much so that A&B and other big Hawaii sugar companies acquired major stakes in Matson. In 1964 A&B bought out several co-owners to acquire a controlling interest in Matson, then five years later bought out remaining shareholders to gain complete ownership.

Ownership of Matson gave A&B one of its biggest real estate assets: 1,500 acres that A&B would turn into Wailea Resort. Matson, which owned hotels in Waikiki to serve tourists traveling on its passenger ships, acquired the land in 1957 with an interest in expanding its hotel business. But growing competition in passenger service from airlines led Matson to exit the tourism industry.

A&B ended up developing Wailea with an investment partner in the 1970s, and real estate development of agricultural land became a large focus and profit center. The company also acquired a portfolio of commercial real estate on the mainland.

Today A&B is the fourth-largest private landowner in Hawaii and operates the only remaining sugar plantation, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., on Maui. Among its major development projects are parcels in Wailea, a Maui industrial park and a 1,000-acre luxury golf course community on Kauai called Kukui’ula.