After William Wirtz’s death Wednesday, his son Rocky Wirtz said the family will remain in control of the Wirtz Corp. business empire, which includes the Chicago Blackhawks, but he declined to say who would lead it.
Still, Rocky Wirtz said there is a succession plan in place for the firm, which also owns one of the nation’s largest family-owned liquor wholesaling operations.
Bill Wirtz, 77, died after a battle with cancer. Wirtz Corp. dates to the 1930s when Bill Wirtz’s father, Arthur, got involved in Chicago real estate. The younger Wirtz worked in the family business and took over after Arthur died in 1983.
Rocky Wirtz, 54, heads Wirtz Corp.’s liquor distributing business, while Rocky’s brother, Peter, 47, runs the Blackhawks. Bill Wirtz’s death is not expected to change the firm’s business plan, said Rocky Wirtz.
“If anything, we’ll grow our business more,” Rocky Wirtz said. “We’re well-capitalized, we’re proud of our balance sheet, and that’s a good thing when times are tough.”
Given its financial strength, Rocky Wirtz said, he doesn’t expect that Wirtz Corp. will need to make any divestitures to deal with any estate taxes brought on by Bill Wirtz’s death.
“I think the business is in very good hands,” said A. Robert Abboud, former chairman of First National Bank of Chicago, who had a long banking relationship with the family and is involved in business ventures with the family. “I have great confidence in Rocky and Peter.”
Abboud said Wirtz schooled his sons in the family business. He recalls that one of Wirtz’s sons was present at every business meeting he attended.
It was part of his larger plan to keep the privately held businesses in family hands, Abboud said. “Succession was very important to Bill.”
As to whether Wirtz’s death will lead to changes in the mix of the family’s business holdings, Abboud said, “There may be a decision to do something, but a decision predicated on opportunity and interest, absolutely nothing that would require a necessity.”
The Wirtz family business has estimated annual sales of $1.3 billion, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. It employs 1,500, according to a recent Dun & Bradstreet report.
Besides pro hockey, Wirtz is best known for its liquor wholesaling business, which over the years has expanded into Nevada, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Wood Dale-based Judge & Dolph, which is controlled by the Wirtz family, is the second-largest liquor distributor in Illinois, after Southern Wine & Spirits.
Southern, owned by a Miami-based firm, has about a 45 percent share of the Illinois market, while Wirtz has about 25 percent, said Paul Jenkins, executive director of Wine and Spirits Distributors of Illinois, a trade group. Union Beverage, owned by a Dallas-based company, is third with about 20 percent, Jenkins said.
Back in the 1990s, Judge & Dolph was the market leader in Illinois. But consolidation among liquormakers has taken a toll, said Rocky Wirtz. Wholesalers find themselves dealing with larger manufacturers with more power to move their business around.
The alcoholic-beverage industry is one of the nation’s most regulated businesses. Wholesalers are always tempted to skirt the rules, but Wirtz never did, Jenkins said.
“He didn’t try to bend the rules. He played by the sheet he was given,” said Jenkins.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t try to change the rules.
In the late 1990s Wirtz enlisted 19 of the state’s most powerful politicians, including former Gov. James Thompson, to pass legislation that came to be known as the “Wirtz law.”
It called for liquor manufacturers to show just cause before they could switch distributors. Supporters said liquormakers had become near monopolies that could cut off distributors on a moment’s notice, bankrupting them. Opponents saw it as a protectionist gift to Wirtz and other distributors.
After a bitter fight the law passed in 1999 but it was ruled unconstitutional in 2002.
Wirtz’s financial empire also spilled into banking and real estate. He was a major investor and director of Firstar, a bank then based in Milwaukee, from 1980 to 2000. Firstar has since merged with U.S. Bancorp and operates under that name.
His family is said to own about 100 residential buildings in the Chicago area.
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