LIDL
Lidl was founded in 1973 by a german
young boy called Dieter Schwarz. His
small store in
Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim has grown
in the last twenty years to 11,200
stores in 32 countries around the
world.
Schwarz was born in Heilbronn in
1939. He was the son of the fruit
seller Josef Schwarz who ran a shop
with his partner Lidl. After finishing
high school he started working with
his father. In 1973 the Schwarzes decided to open their first supermarket,
imitating the Aldi model. This supermarket spread throughout Germany for a
large selection of products with low prices.They had a problem because his
surname meant black so he decided to use the last name of his father's partner
to avoid problems. Four years after opening the first supermarket, Lidl was
already a chain of 33 stores. In 1977 Josef Schwarz died and his son was left in
charge of the company. Today he is the second richest man in Germany.
Currently, Lidl is a very successful company for its low prices and also for its
large campaigns against pollution. It is the third most popular supermarket in
the world.