ALDI Case Study
History of ALDI
➢ 1913: Aldi’s rags to riches story began back, when Frau Anna Albrecht opened the Karl
Albrecht Spirituosen und Lebensmittel grocery store in Schonnebeck, a low-income suburb
of Essen, Germany.
➢ end of World War II: Anna’s sons Karl and Theo took over their mother’s business and
transformed it into ‘the first discount store in the world’.
➢ 1948: the brothers opening four stores in the local area not long after.
➢ 1950: To avoid paying expensive overheads and to build their business slowly but surely,
Theo and Karl Albrecht decided to concentrate on developing a chain of small
supermarkets. they owned 13 stores in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
➢ 1954: opening Germany’s first self-service store – with success.
➢ 1960: Theo and Karl Albrecht owned 300 stores with an annual turnover of millions.
➢ 1960: the brothers split the chain into two separate groups after falling out over whether
they should sell cigarettes. Theo headed Albrecht-Diskont Nord, which sold cigarettes,
while Karl became the CEO of Albrecht–Diskont Süd, which did not.
➢ In 1962: the brothers, who were still working together despite their disagreement, decided
to name the groups Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, taken from the first two letters of Albrecht and
Diskont. Aldi Nord took over stores in the north of Germany while Aldi Süd became
responsible for stores in the south. The border between the two became known as the ‘Aldi
Equator’.
1966: The two businesses became financially and legally separate. By this time, there were
