When the fourth-generation leaders of Bergey’s start describing how they came to be involved in the family business, one thing becomes clear immediately: for most of them, it was never really in question.
They all grew up around the business, which today is an auto, truck and tire company operating more than 50 locations throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. And they all started working in it as soon as they came of legal age to do so (OK, maybe a teensy bit before that). From that point on, the notion of a potential career outside of Bergey’s was rarely entertained.
All 10 of the G4 Bergeys had a similar upbringing in the business and all 10 work there to this day. Most agree that while they were certainly encouraged to join the business — primarily by their grandfather, Henry Bergey, son of founder Norman Bergey — it was presented as a privilege rather than an ultimatum. “There was never pressure, like, ‘You have to work here,’” recalls Luke Bergey, a dealer principal. “It was more like, ‘Here’s an opportunity. If you want it, take it.’”
In Luke’s case, Henry officially offered him a position at Bergey’s when he was 16 so that he could start saving up to buy a vehicle. “He could have given me a car, but he gave me a job instead,” Luke says, adding, “It was fun to be a part of this with your cousins. It was natural from that standpoint.”
Henry, who passed away in January at 102, was a major presence in each of his grandchildren’s lives, but he was particularly impactful on Luke and his two older siblings, Mark and Kevin. Their father — Henry’s son, Roy — died of a heart attack at age 36, when Kevin was 15, Mark was 12 and Luke was 6. Henry stepped in as a father figure to the boys and eventually steered each of them toward the business, though that isn’t to say they all took the same path.
The Birth of Bergey’s
Bergey’s was founded in 1924, when Norman Bergey opened an automobile repair shop in Franconia, Pa., about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Calling the business Norman Bergey’s Garage, he initially converted an old blacksmith shop into a two-car garage before hiring his first employee and moving to a larger space the following year.
By the mid-1940s, Norman had expanded into the tire retreading business. In 1959, his sons Henry, Lester and Norm Jr. joined the business, which then changed its name to Bergey’s Garage. In 1966, they opened Bergey’s Tire and Service in nearby Doylestown, Pa., before branching out into auto sales in the 1970s with a succession of dealer franchise purchases. They also opened several other Tire and Service locations during that period.
That growth continued through the 1980s, including the 1987 opening of Bergey’s first Commercial Truck Tire Service Center, in Hatfield, Pa. It was also during that period that Roy’s oldest son, Kevin, joined the business full-time.
Kevin, like all of his siblings and cousins, started doing odd jobs around the business at a young age. But when he was 15, soon after his father had passed away, Norman gave him a job managing Bergey’s “accessory store,” which Kevin describes as a sort of proto-Best Buy that sold TVs, radios and eight-track players.
The new role meant he was responsible for taking customer orders, which had to be processed by 4 p.m. each day. Since Kevin was still in high school until 3 p.m. every weekday, this quickly became a source of tension. “School was kind of getting in the way of being in business,” recalls Kevin, who today is a dealer principal. When Kevin turned 18, he got his salesman’s license and, under the guidance of his uncle, Glenn Bergey (G3), immediately began learning the business of selling used cars.
More truck tire service centers, car dealerships and a fully automated no-touch car wash followed over the next decade-plus. That time period also saw more G4s enter the business.
Glenn’s daughter, Renita Bergey Shelley, a dealer principal, officially joined the business in the mid-1990s. “My dad definitely plugged us in early, whether it was mowing the yards, pumping the fuel, working the car wash, whatever it may be,” Renita says, recalling days spent running around the car lots with her sisters Joanna, Glenda and Laura. But, like Luke, Renita says she never felt pressured to join the family business.
Outside the Bergey ‘Bubble’
Still, as the G4s rose up the leadership ranks, they began to see the wisdom in having NextGens gain experience outside the family business. Chief Relationship Officer Duane Bergey, Lester’s son and the youngest member of G3, recalls that, around 2017 or 2018, members of the fourth generation began advocating for an outside work requirement. “I grew up in generation three and there wasn’t a lot of push for that,” Duane says. “We were just all kind of like, ‘Hey, everybody come on board and start rowing.’ But [now] we recognize that it would really be healthy for the company and for our family to get some experience outside.”
Among those outside work advocates in G4 was Mark Bergey, who became CEO of the company in 2017. Perhaps more than his siblings and cousins, Mark does recall feeling some pressure to join the business full-time after he graduated high school. “Growing up in our community here, it was a little bit of a bubble, a fishbowl — whatever you want to call it,” he explains. “If [someone] found out who I was, ‘Oh, you’re a Bergey? Well, I guess I know where you’re working.’”
And while the family wasn’t against college as an option, there wasn’t much of a push in that direction either. “My great-grandfather, Norman, said to me, ‘Mark, your place is here.’ He was very clear about that. ‘This is where you need to be.’
Still, he has no regrets. The Bergeys’ Christian faith is central to everything they do and Mark says he always felt called to some form of ministry. He’s also always had an interest in finance. He eventually realized that a career in the family business would allow him to marry the two. “I felt that God made that pretty clear to me as I grew older,” he says. “You don’t have to leave the business to be a missionary; you can be a missionary in your business.”
While Mark would like his own children to join the business eventually, he’s also careful not to put pressure on them. He wants them to spend some time away from Bergey’s so that, if they eventually do decide to come back, it will be on their terms.
The family shareholders initially disagreed on the length of time NextGens should be required to work outside the business. Ultimately, however, they settled on mandating a full year of outside employment with a single employer. “So, if they’re jumping jobs — two months here, two months there — it doesn’t count,” Duane says. “You have to work a solid year outside somewhere.”
From Fractured Factions to ‘ONE Bergey’
Institution of the policy requiring family members to work outside the business came about a decade and a half after another transformational decision: inviting outsiders into the business. In 2003, the company hired its first independent director. It followed up 13 years later with a second director before quickly adding a third. Today, the company’s fiduciary board includes three independent directors and four family members.
“That has definitely helped the growth of our company, there’s no doubt about it,” Mark says. “Adding independent directors brought accountability and wisdom from different perspectives and industries that challenged us to think differently.” The establishment of the board also laid the foundation for additional governance. This includes a governance and nominating committee. The committee comprises two members from each branch of the family, for a total of eight, and is responsible for nominating both family and independent board members, as well as setting policy for the family. There is also a family employment committee — Duane, along with Bergey’s VP of human resources, its CFO, an independent board member and an outside advisor — which reviews requests for exemptions from the outside work policy.
Solid governance is key to supporting an initiative Mark is particularly passionate about: “ONE Bergey.” In a company with multiple business groups, including dozens of dealerships representing 20 different automotive and truck brands, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that everyone is on the same team, under the Bergey’s banner.
Kevin recalls that tension beginning to arise in the second generation. With Henry at the helm of the automotive division and Lester leading the tire division, the two halves of the business were often pitted against each other. That unhealthy competition and misalignment also bled into the succeeding generation.
“As our generation was rising up — and I became CEO in late 2017 — we saw that there was division happening within that second and third generation,” Mark explains. “We could see that the cousins and the uncles were kind of going their separate ways. We said, ‘Whoa, let’s refocus here and get back to being one family, one company, with one mission statement.’”
As part of that refocusing effort, the family engaged the services of Delaware Valley Family Business Center (DVFBC) about 10 years ago. Several Bergeys credit DVFBC with helping to restore harmony to the family and ease the transition from G3 to G4.
Joanna Bergey Shisler (G4), a dealer principal, describes the atmosphere at the time as “toxic” and marked by poor communication among the family members. “Being a family — it’s a muscle. You’ve got to work at it all the time,” she says. “And I feel really good now. We’re not perfect, and we do have a ways to go, but we’ve come so far. And I think everyone feels heard. That wasn’t always the case.”
Working with outside advisors helped both the outgoing G3s and incoming G4s to better understand each other’s points of view. “We would say there were a lot of ‘yucky’ conversations that we had to have in order to move forward,” says Renita. “We really had to be honest with ourselves and with each other.”
In addition to a healthier family dynamic, making the ONE Bergey initiative a reality required changing the company’s ownership model. Shareholders now each own a stake in Bergey Corporation, established under Mark’s leadership as the holding company for the family’s various business entities, as well as its real estate investments.
The ownership change began a mindset shift: Rather than viewing each other purely as competitors in an aggressive industry, they began working together as business partners. Mark encouraged family members leading different dealerships and divisions to share best practices with each other, prioritizing the health of the overall business. “We still have our individual results and there’s still lot of competitiveness there,” Luke says, referring specifically to the auto dealerships. “But because all the ownership has flowed up to one [entity], if one store is struggling, the other team really wants to reach out and try to help them.”
“It’s been a journey to embrace ONE Bergey because we had to rethink how we approached much of the business,” Mark says, “but I think it has supported our growth, while achieving strong results in recent years.”
A Desirable Destination
Indeed, a scan of the company timeline on Bergey’s website shows an impressive number of acquisitions and new location openings over the past decade-plus. Today, the company has more than 1,800 team members (the term “employees” is forbidden at Bergey’s). But the G4 leaders have been careful to avoid growth for growth’s sake.
Kevin says Henry’s philosophy on business expansion planning was less formal than Bergey’s current approach, but he was always looking for growth opportunities. As the company has grown and more family members have gotten involved in decisions, Bergey’s has had to develop a more formal acquisition process. This was another area in which the independent directors helped Bergey’s advance. They advised the new leaders that, regardless of whether they ultimately decided to sell the business or continue on, they would need to be more disciplined about scaling up. “They said, ‘You’re not a mom-and-pop store anymore,’” Kevin recalls.
First, the G4s had to decide whether they wanted to stay in business as a family. “We all got together … everybody raised their hand: ‘Let’s do this for another 100 years,’” Kevin says. With that settled, they resolved to strike a balance between opportunism and patience in assessing potential acquisitions.
Likewise, Mark preaches “steady growth.” There’s been no shortage of acquisition opportunities coming across his desk in recent years. Often, Bergey’s is approached by smaller family-owned businesses who don’t want to sell to a conglomerate or private equity firm. To them, ensuring continued family ownership — even if it’s by another family — functions as a kind of succession plan.
In addition to the family’s strong emphasis on faith, the Bergeys strictly adhere to the “Golden Rule,” which has been a core value of the business since its founding. “When somebody comes in with their car, their truck or their tire and they need work done, we really try to think of them as somebody close to us — maybe a mother, a father, a child — and how we would want that person to be treated,” Duane says. “That’s how my grandfather started the business.”
More recently, the company has further refined that concept, adopting the motto, “Driven to Serve,” which Mark says reflects Bergey’s commitment to the servant leadership model. In their business, that means prioritizing the well-being of Bergey’s team members, customers and communities — something the G4s learned from theirgrandfather. Stories abound of Henry helping struggling team members — including paying their rent in some cases — and customers, as well as donating to various community causes anonymously and without fanfare. “That was his philosophy: Just help as many people as you can, and the rest will take care of itself,” Kevin says.
The succeeding generations have made it their mission to continue that legacy. But keeping Bergey’s sought-after company culture and hard-earned community reputation intact as the business continues to expand and add new team members requires a concerted effort. “When you’re as large as we are, it becomes a real challenge to make sure everybody understands that vision and knows what it means to carry that out,” Duane says. “So, there’s constant training and education around that because not everybody sees it the same way. We really have to work at that.”
A Second Century in Service
A testament to Bergey’s strong culture as a family business is the fact that it celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. In line with the family’s commitment to serve others, their celebrations were focused on giving credit to those that preceded them and thanking others for their support. The company put together a comprehensive coffee table book called Driven to Serve: The 100-Year History of Bergey’s and embarked on a four-month “Thankful Tour” that saw family members — including shareholders who don’t work in the business — visiting every one of Bergey’s locations to personally thank team members, customers and their communities.
In tow was a “traveling museum”: a 26-foot trailer that displayed a timeline of the company’s history and featured the names of each of the nearly 8,500 people who have worked for the company since its founding, arranged by decade. They wrapped up the four-state tour in June with a celebration at the corporate office in Franconia. In September, they also had a one-day celebration event that featured a classic car show, free food and entertainment, and a fireworks finale. The event drew about 8,000 community members.
When Kevin says the family shareholders agreed to remain in business together for the next 100 years, he’s not exaggerating for effect — it’s a stated goal of the family. Part of the way the Bergeys are seeking to achieve this is through very intentional shareholder engagement, including sending frequent updates on the company to family owners, working together on service projects in their local communities and holding biennial family retreats that are built around a theme. Last year’s theme was generosity.
“It’s an opportunity to learn about the business, generosity and what God has given us, but then also just spend time together,” says Bergey’s Project Manager Glenda Bergey Leatherman, who is in charge of planning the retreats. The gatherings also offer a chance for the family to indulge that competitive side: Last year, they separated into teams – Lincoln, Ford, Chevy and GMC – for a rollicking broomball tournament.
As crucial as shareholder engagement is, the Bergeys also understand that the other key to their company’s future longevity lies outside the family bloodline. Acknowledging that, through the decades, non-family leaders have played a major role in the company’s growth to this point, the question now is how to bring more of them into high-level leadership positions, particularly on the consumer auto side.
“We have close to 20 family members that work in the business, but compared to 1,800 team members, that’s a very small percentage,” Duane says. “So, we’re just grappling with: How do you move that forward? If we want to double in size in ‘X’ number of years, how does that work?”
At least in part, it will come down once again to that Golden Rule, which includes giving all team members opportunities to advance in the company. “I think the next 100 years for us really has to be about bringing more and more really solid people that aren’t family into the tent, if you will,” Duane says. “And you want everybody to feel like, ‘The sky’s the limit for me in this company.’”
While the family does not know what the future holds, their desire is to continue as a family business, with future generations actively involved in the business, while staying true to their Christian values.