The Pritzkers' Potful

Pritzker & Pritzker is a Chicago law firm that has not had a case in years, and could not care less. "We neither seek nor accept clients," says Partner Jay A. Pritzker. "There would be too much conflict of interest and not enough time." That is quite an understatement. By astutely minding their own business, the entrepreneurial Pritzkers have put together a portfolio of business interests with assets approaching $500 million. The Pritzkers--Jay, Brothers Robert and Donald, plus Father Abram and Uncle Jack--run one of the nation's largest and least-known family enterprises.

Among the holdings they control from their law offices are the Marmon Group Inc., a diverse collection of businesses that last year had sales of $79 million, and the Colson Corp. ($12 million), a maker of food carts and other equipment. They also own a myriad of smaller companies in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia involved in mining and agricultural equipment, cement and fertilizer. Then there are 400,000 acres of timber and farmland in the South and Northwest, plus housing developments and shopping centers in Chicago, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico.

Key Location. With a little private banking business thrown in, the family more than meets its goal of being, as Jack Pritzker puts it, "busy and successful." Busiest of all the Pritzker holdings nowadays is its 57%-owned Hyatt Corp., which in twelve years has grown from a single unit to a chain of 14 hotels and 40 motels. Run from headquarters in Burlingame, Calif., by Donald Pritzker, 35, Hyatt increased its earnings last year by 78% over the year before, to $1.5 million.

Though far smaller than such chains as Sheraton (1967 revenues: $286.6 million), Hyatt has achieved a growth rate that Don Pritzker claims is "tops in the industry." By keeping to key locations near airports and in downtown areas where hotel business is already booming, the chain hopes to keep that growth continuing. This year alone Hyatt is building ten more motels and expanding its standout success, Atlanta's handsome and unusual Regency Hyatt House. Little more than a year old, Regency House has already become a major Atlanta attraction. Its interior balconies rise 22 stories around a glass-roofed central atrium, served by glass-enclosed high-speed elevators. Now, a 200-room, 25-story circular glass addition is under construction. Hyatt has also scheduled new hotels for Monterey, San Francisco and Chicago, and last month announced plans to expand into the Caribbean and Mexico.

By no means a family of innkeepers, the Pritzkers rely on good managers who are paid generous stock options and bonuses to make them "think like owners." Still, the Pritzkers are skilled operators. Abram, now 72, first discovered the family touch back in the Depression, when he found that he could make more money dabbling in real estate than laboring with the law. Leaving legal chores to subordinates (among them: Arthur Goldberg), Abram tended to business. He bought into, among other things, Chicago's appliance-making Cory Corp., which he served as chairman until last year, when Hershey Foods Corp. acquired Cory for $23 million.

Common Pot. Following suit, the oldest son, Jay Pritzker, now 45, picked up a law degree at Northwestern, then set out to pick up companies. First he got into lumber, then joined Brother Bob, 41, in putting together some metal-goods companies. It was after a 1956 flight to Los Angeles that Jay landed the family in the hotel business. Checking in at the Hyatt House, he found it the "first first-class hotel I had ever seen near an airport," worked out a deal to buy it that same morning. Since then, Jay has pretty much become the family financier, concerned with "our No. 1 problem, finding deals."

Although profitable deals have carried the family a long way from the Depression, the Pritzkers retain the frugal camaraderie of those days. "We all sign each other's bank accounts," says Jay, "and the money goes into one common pot." The family has even been known to sit around a luncheon table at Chicago's Standard Club and, while discussing new business deals, divvy up a single corned-beef sandwich.

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