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Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
The secrets of Lidl's global success: a shipping firm, a coffee factory and an Irish boss
From inflatable pools to chainsaws, you never know what you'll find in the Lidl middle aisle. But few Irish shoppers know how the chain secures its flow of weekly special offers: with its own shipping company. Tailwind Shipping operates 10 ships with an annual capacity of around 110,000 containers – and is expanding. It bought five additional container ships in May, while in June it contracted a Chinese firm to build five more. Some 25 years after its launch in Ireland, where it has a 13.8 per cent retail market share, the company's own shipping line is a key part of its response to pandemic-era supply chain insecurities. It doesn't stop there. After severe delivery difficulties five years ago, Lidl's Schwarz Group parent company has expanded its in-house production in a big way, with its own factories for coffee, ice cream, toilet paper and pasta. READ MORE Lidl's production sister company had turnover of €4.6 billion last year, prompting one German newspaper to note wryly that Lidl's parent is Europe's largest noodle maker north of the Alps. It's all a long way from 1973, when Ireland entered the European Economic Community (EEC) and Lidl began life as a shameless copycat of the original Albrecht Discount. Some 52 years on – for now at least – Lidl has decided in its favour the battle for supremacy with its German arch-rival Aldi . 'The goal was always to be as good as Aldi, now Lidl has overtaken Aldi,' said Prof Carsten Kortum, a retail academic who worked as a Lidl manager for 17 years until 2010. In global terms, Lidl is now the fourth-largest retailer by turnover, with a 43 per cent higher global turnover than Aldi, which is placed seven in the global ladder. [ From 'LID-ill or LEED-ill?' to bargain canoes: 25 lessons from Lidl's 25 years in Ireland Opens in new window ] Aldi may be the original German discounter but, a decade after the death of its last founding brother Karl Albrecht, the company is struggling to reinvent its offering and structures amid public family feuds. Today's Lidl bears little resemblance to the company Carsten Kortum joined in 1997. Back then, it was still leaning into its Swabian-Protestant roots of puritan penny-pinching efficiency. 'We used pencils to write prices on card signs so we could reuse them, company cars were wrecks and, by the middle of the year, we usually ran out of office supplies,' laughs Kortum of DHBW, a state university founded in Baden-Württemberg that integrates academic studies with workplace training. He attributes much of Lidl's success today to its successful expansion across Europe with largely autonomous local subsidiaries. These new companies, from Wexford to Warsaw, tapped local suppliers and brought fresh management thinking into the inherently conservative German retailer. For Kortum, these ideas and innovations expanded, rather than undermined, Lidl HQ's focus on German efficiency. 'Lidl had to learn that success only comes if you give people freedom without too much control from the centre,' he says. 'Lidl's working language is still German but Lidl as a purely German retailer doesn't exist any more because it wouldn't work.' Lidl's enigmatic billionaire owner Dieter Schwarz is Germany's richest man. Illustration: The Irish Times Ireland has been a key part of its new success. Kenneth McGrath, the Lidl Ireland chief executive from 2009 to 2013 who taught recession-hit Ireland to embrace the German discounter, is now chief executive of the entire group. 'He was brought in to modernise the group, as someone who knows the US market and not just the German discounter world,' said Manfred Stockburger, chief correspondent of retail trade newspaper Lebensmittelzeitung. 'But he is a child of Lidl and he knows every screw you have to turn to change something.' [ Lidl Ireland employees to benefit from pay increases averaging 3% Opens in new window ] Aldi is far ahead of Lidl in the US, has pushed into China and remains an unquestioned king of retail efficiency. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/ Bloomberg While Lidl races to diversify, Aldi appears more interested in its core business as a retail price leader. But even here it is under attack. On page seven of last Thursday's Bild tabloid, Aldi insisted it was the 'inventor of low prices'. That claim came two pages after Lidl, in a cheeky full-page advertisement, presented a bag of fruit and vegetables it said was 21 per cent cheaper than Aldi. Such robust advertising claims are familiar elsewhere in Europe but less so here. In the these retail giants' home turf, it seems the gloves are off. No one in Germany is writing off Aldi just yet. Still family-owned and with huge capital piles, Aldi is far ahead of Lidl in the US, has pushed into China and remains an unquestioned king of retail efficiency. But many see a worrying pattern: it is closing its online store and still testing a customer loyalty programme. Lidl's online store is booming and its customer loyalty app is now well established. Helping to drive Lidl's reinvention is a deep-pocketed parent company, the Schwarz Group, a family-controlled and unlisted corporate giant with €154 billion in annual revenues last year. As well as Lidl and the hypermarket chain Kaufland, the Schwarz Group has branched out into recycling (2024 turnover: €3.9 billion) and future technologies such as its Stackit cloud computing offering. The pitch to companies: 'Data sovereign, crisis-proof, innovative and a Swabian original. The German cloud for all companies that want to remain independent.' As part of this sovereignty strategy, the Schwarz group is co-funding a European alternative to the US-dominated field with the German-based Aleph Alpha AI, promising clients full control as well as EU data protection and security standards. [ Grocery price inflation surges to more than 4.5% Opens in new window ] Today, Lidl operates 12,000 stores in 31 countries. Photograph: Alex Segre/ UCG/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images Lidl's enigmatic billionaire owner Dieter Schwarz is Germany's richest man. Forbes estimates his fortune at $49.8 billion, making him the world's 24th richest person. Born in Heilbronn in southwestern Germany in 1939, Schwarz operates his privately-held business interests through a series of foundations that limit transparency and filing requirements. Married with two children, Schwarz guards his privacy and only a handful of images of him exist in the public domain. The Schwarz empire has its corporate roots in the company Südfrüchte Großhandlung Lidl & Co. Schwarz's father Josef became a partner in 1930 and the firm was renamed Lidl & Schwarz KG. Schwarz began working in the company as a buyer in 1962, opening his first store in 1968 and, five years later, his first discount retailer. To avoid jokes about Schwarzmarkt (black market), he secured the rights to the Lidl name and, by the time of his father's death in 1977, had 30 discount stores. Today, Lidl operates 12,000 stores in 31 countries and its parent Schwarz Group has a total of 595,000 employees. It has 186 stores in Ireland, and last year employed 5,529 staff here. Some 1.5 million shoppers pass through the doors of its Irish shops each week, it says. The Schwarz group has invested in childcare and sports streaming service Dyn, alongside the German football league, while Dieter Schwarz has backed what he hopes will be Europe's largest AI hub: the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence in his hometown of Heilbronn. 'Schwarz has stepped away from day-to-day activities,' says one long-time trade observer, 'but having him still there as the patriarch remains hugely important for Lidl's success'.
Bloomberg
10-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Supermarket Billionaire Wants to Build AI Gigafactory in Europe
The Schwarz Group, Germany's largest retailer and owner of supermarket chain Lidl, is planning to pitch the government to be the lead developer of a major data center central to Europe's artificial intelligence efforts. The privately held retailer, which is controlled by billionaire founder Dieter Schwarz, will present its plan to spend billions of euros on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
Indian Express
09-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Top 10 richest heirs in the world 2025: The only Indian on the list turned his $2.8 bn inheritance into $200 bn empire
Top 10 richest heirs in the world 2025: For most parents, the grandest gift they might hope to give their children is a car or a college education. But among the ultra-wealthy, inheritances often take the form of billion-dollar empires. Roughly one-third of the 3,028 billionaires on Forbes' 2024 World's Billionaires List inherited at least part of their fortune. Collectively, these 990 billionaire heirs are worth a staggering $5.3 trillion — $56 billion more than last year. While their total wealth has grown, they now make up a slightly smaller share of the list (33 per cent, down from 34 per cent) as new self-made billionaires continue to rise. At the top are the three heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton – Rob, Jim and Alice – who inherited their stake in the retail giant and took different paths. Each of them are now worth over $100 billion. Rob and Jim served long stints on the company's board, while Alice focused on philanthropy and the arts. Together with other relatives, the Walton family controls nearly 45 per cent of Walmart. Around 60 per cent of the heirs on this year's list are actively expanding their fortunes, either by running inherited firms or launching new ventures. India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani ($92.5 billion), is a prime example. After his father's passing in 2002, Ambani inherited a $2.8 billion stake in Reliance Industries. Today, he's grown it into a $200 billion empire spanning petrochemicals, telecom, and retail. And the heirs are getting younger, too — every one of the world's 14 youngest billionaires inherited their wealth. The youngest – Johannes von Baumbach, 19 – is now worth $5.4 billion through his stake in German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim. Dieter Schwarz, 85, is one of Germany's most private yet powerful business figures. He is the effective owner and former CEO of the Schwarz Group, the parent company behind retail giants Lidl and Kaufland. Schwarz joined the family business under his father Josef Schwarz, who had originally transformed a fruit wholesaling operation into a broader retail venture. In 1973, Dieter opened the very first Lidl store, laying the foundation for what would become one of the largest supermarket chains in Europe. Since then, the Schwarz Group has expanded aggressively. Today, it generates over $160 billion in annual revenue. Despite his immense wealth and influence in the retail world, Schwarz is known for maintaining a remarkably low public profile, rarely giving interviews or making public appearances. John Mars and his sister Jacqueline Mars, both citizens of the United States, are heirs to Mars, Incorporated, the iconic family-owned company known for beloved brands like M&M's, Snickers, and Pedigree pet food. Each sibling holds an estimated net worth of $42.6 billion, stemming from the one-third stakes they inherited in the company founded by their grandfather, Frank Mars, in 1911. Along with their late brother Forrest Jr., John and Jacqueline helped shape Mars into a diversified global empire. John and Forrest Jr. served as co-presidents from 1975, overseeing major expansions into chewing gum and pet care. Jacqueline worked at the company for nearly 20 years before stepping down in 2001, and she remained on the board until 2016. Known for her involvement in the equestrian world, Jacqueline has also dedicated much of her wealth to philanthropy. A 1992 Washington Post article revealed that the three Mars siblings worked in the same office and even shared a secretary, despite controlling one of the largest private companies in the world. Charles Koch, 89, inherited a modest oil refining and engineering business in Wichita, Kansas, from his father Fred Koch in 1967. Over the decades, he transformed it into Koch, Inc. (formerly Koch Industries), one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, generating $125 billion in annual revenue. The sprawling conglomerate has diversified into everything from cloud software to fertilizer. As the heir to Koch, Inc., Charles Koch has long been a staunch advocate for free-market capitalism, using his wealth to fund numerous libertarian and conservative causes. From 2020 to 2022, he transferred $5.3 billion worth of nonvoting stock to two nonprofits that allow more political activity than typical charities, effectively shifting nearly 10 per cent of his 42 per cent stake in the company. In 2023, for the first time, he appointed a co-CEO to share leadership of the company he built. At 62, Julia Koch is one of the wealthiest women in the world, with a net worth of $74.2 billion. She and her three children inherited a 42 per cent stake in Koch, Inc. after the death of her husband, David Koch, in 2019–brother to Charles Koch. While based in New York, Julia has remained actively involved in both business and philanthropy. In 2024, she and her children invested nearly $700 million to acquire a 15 per cent stake in BSE Global, the parent company of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA's New York Liberty. Through her Julia Koch Family Foundation, she also donated $75 million last year to establish the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center at NYU Langone's West Palm Beach campus. Koch serves on the boards of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is a director at Koch, Inc., maintaining influence over one of the largest private companies in America. At 71, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers stands as one of the most prominent heirs in the world, thanks to her family's significant stake in L'Oréal–the iconic French cosmetics empire founded by her grandfather, Eugène Schueller, in 1909. The Bettencourt Meyers family still owns over a third of the company. In June, she briefly made history as the first woman to surpass the $100 billion mark in net worth. Although she stepped down from L'Oréal's board in February 2025, her legacy remains firmly intertwined with the company's success. Françoise was the world's richest woman for more than two years until Walmart heiress Alice Walton overtook her in September. At 67, Mukesh Ambani is India's richest man, with a net worth of $92.5 billion. He and his younger brother Anil inherited the sprawling Reliance empire from their father, the legendary industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, after his death in 2002. However, their inheritance soon became a source of conflict, resulting in a split of the family business. While Anil's fortune dwindled amid mounting debts and business failures, Mukesh successfully expanded Reliance Industries into a massive conglomerate spanning oil, petrochemicals, retail, and telecom–cementing his position as Asia's wealthiest individual. The three surviving heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton – Rob, Jim, and Alice Walton – together hold around 34 per cent of the company's shares, placing them among the richest individuals globally. Rob Walton, the eldest sibling, was a key figure on Walmart's board for more than 40 years, including over two decades as chairman, before retiring in 2024. Jim Walton, the youngest, stepped down from the board in 2016 but remains active as the head of the family-run Arvest Bank Group, a prominent regional bank. In contrast, Alice Walton has focused her efforts on philanthropy and the arts, donating more than $1.7 billion to initiatives supporting education, environmental causes, and her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas–where she established the renowned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Source: Forbes
Bloomberg
02-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Lidl's Owner, DFL Invest in German Streaming Platform Dyn
By Updated on Save Schwarz Group, the owner of supermarket chain Lidl, is leading a new round of investment into German sports streaming platform Dyn Media. Schwarz Group will acquire a stake of about 42.5% in Dyn Media, putting it on par with Axel Springer SE as the largest shareholder of the platform, according to a statement on Wednesday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German league becomes shareholder in streaming service Dyn
The logo of the German Football League (DFL) pictured on the sidelines of a DFL members' meeting at the Wiesbaden Congress Center. Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa The German Football League (DFL) has become a new shareholder in the streaming service Dyn, a media company owned by former DFL managing director Christian Seifert. The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, Dyn said in a statement on Wednesday. Advertisement In addition to the DFL, retailer Schwarz Group, that operates stores under the Lidl and Kaufland brands, will also acquire a stake in the online broadcasters. Together with media giants Axel Springer SE and Seifert himself, there will therefore be four shareholders in future. After leaving the DFL, Seifert worked with Springer to set up Dyn. Its motto to date has been: "Everything except football." The paid streaming service currently has handball, basketball, volleyball, table tennis and hockey in its catalogue. The investment of the DFL and the Schwarz Group, "paves the way for the further growth of Dyn Media," Seifert said. Springer and the Schwarz Group each hold an equal stake of around 42.5%. The two smaller shareholders are Seifert with around 9% and the DFL with around 6.5%.
