In 1896, the Scottish American industrialist Andrew Carnegie remarked that there “are but three generations in America from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves”. It was a phrase coined to highlight how quickly inherited wealth can dissipate, and that companies established by the first generation can be lost by the third. History is littered with examples of third-generation family business failures. However, the retail and hospitality business controlled by the Pettitt family is an outlier. Established in 1885, it is run by the fifth generation of the Wexford-based family. Not only has it survived, but it has thrived, consistently timing both…