Most family businesses don’t survive the third generation, yet Dick Wood, semi-retired chairman of the Wawa convenience store chain, is comfortably watching his multi-generation company thrive.

Wood kept Wawa private, but also started handing it off to non­-family leaders more than a decade ago, betting the best way to ensure Wawa’s future was to separate it from its founding family. His wager paid off. Wawa now has almost 800 locations­–none franchised–and 30,000 employees in six states (plus Washington, D.C.), writes Maria Aspan at inc.com.

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Founded in 1964 by Grahame Wood–Dick’s first cousin once removed–Wawa began as a roadside dairy market in the Philadelphia suburbs. Its founder likely wouldn’t recognize Wawa today, as it expands throughout the East Coast and audaciously tries to muscle out of the gas-station ghetto to compete with the likes of Panera, Starbucks, and Sweetgreen.

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