Glowing tributes have been paid to a family of Cumbrian entrepreneurs who lost their lives in an African plane crash.

Alan Williams, 59, a man described as the "Richard Branson of Furness", was on a safari holiday with his entrepreneurial wife Sue and her sister Jill when their five-seater Cessna plane came down in a remote area of western Tanzania.

They are all missing presumed dead along with their colleague and close friend Deborah Winn and the plane's Canadian pilot.

Together the Williams family founded Colony Candles 25 years ago in their Backbarrow garage, building it into Britain's leading scented candle manufacturer with a £20 million turnover and a visitor centre at their Lindal-in-Furness factory.

On Sunday afternoon, the group took off from the eastern shores of Lake Tanganikya for the Katavi National Park when contact with their plane was lost soon after take off.

After failing to arrive at their destination, which is famed for its forest and chimpanzees, four search planes were dispatched. They eventually found plane wreckage along with two bodies at a remote site near the mountainous Mahale National Park. Tanzanian police are now helping in efforts to retrieve all the remains.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority was also on its way to the area to investigate the cause of the crash.

As news broke of the disastrous crash, tributes flowed freely for the Williams family and Ms Winn.

"I'm still in denial, I cannot believe that someone, particularly Alan, who was so full of life, no longer has any life," said Harry Knowles, of Furness Enterprise.

Mr Knowles had worked with the Williamses since the nineties and they had become good friends.

"Alan hated holidays - I guess he was persuaded to take one by Sue and Jill. It wouldn't have been any ordinary holiday, he couldn't lie on a beach. If he walked into your office now he would be pacing up and down.

"He was a big bear of a chap with a big presence, big attitude and big ideas."

Mr Knowles said Furness had lost a "leading business dynasty" and in Alan Williams "the Richard Branson of Furness".

"All three of them were an incredibly strong team - Alan the extrovert the hard-driving entrepreneur, Sue the creative one and Jill the financial mind, she was a MENSA member."

Sue and Alan Williams had started out at the Aynsome Manor Hotel, near Cartmel, before founding Colony in 1979 and, together with Jill, building up the company. Alan was managing director, Sue marketing director and Jill finance director.

Mr Knowles said Alan Williams had been instrumental in persuading Colony shareholders, American gift corporation Blyth Inc, to invest in Furness and help establish a factory at Lindal.

"Had it not been for Alan they would never have really looked at this area. It was a tremendous thing for Furness."

At Colony Candles - which the Williamses sold to Blyth Inc in 2001 - staff expressed "deep shock" over the loss of the family. The company will be holding one minute's silence to mark their passing.

"Colony would not have existed without their entrepreneurial spirit," said general manager Louise McMahon. "I am shocked and stunned that their lives have been taken in this terrible tragedy."

James Long, a colleague for 15 years, and director of Pintail Candles at Lindale, said: "They were very driven, very business orientated. Alan really lived for his business."

Jill and Sue leave their elderly mother at Barrowbanks, near Ulverston, where all three women lived together following Sue Williams's separation from her husband.

Mr Williams lived at Lyncrag Farm, Blawith, near Coniston.

Deborah Winn, described by Mr Knowles as his "right hand woman", had been working with Mr Williams for three years.

"I imagine Alan, Jill, Sue and Deborah, in their last moments, the thing on their minds would be the latest business venture, they were those sort of people - totally focused and dedicated entrepreneurial people," added Mr Knowles.