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Aldi supermarkets' billionaire co-founder Karl Albrecht dies aged 94 Aldi supermarkets' billionaire co-founder Karl Albrecht dies aged 94
(about 2 hours later)
Karl Albrecht, the man credited with bringing discount stores to Europe with the no-frills Aldi supermarket chain, died aged 94 last Wednesday, Aldi said in a statement. Karl Albrecht, the co-founder of discount supermarket chain Aldi and Germany's richest man, has died at 94.
The publicity-shy Albrecht co-founded privately-held Aldi with his brother Theo after the second world war, and 70 years later was ranked by Forbes as Germany's richest person with a fortune of almost $26bn (£15bn). Karl and his brother Theo started Aldi – which has almost 10,000 stores across Europe and eaten into Tesco's dominance in the UK – in 1946.
He resigned from the operational business in 1994 and stepped down from the company's advisory board in 2002. Karl, who was the 35th wealthiest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $21bn (£12.3bn), died last Wednesday but the company delayed releasing news of his death until after the funeral.
"We mourn the death of our company founder, Karl Albrecht," the company said in a statement, adding that the billionaire died on 16 July. Theo, who was worth an estimated $19bn (£11.1bn), died in 2010. The brothers split Aldi into two separate companies – Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Süd (South) – after an argument over whether to sell cigarettes in the 1960s.
The Albrecht family did not issue a statement. It has fiercely guarded its privacy since the kidnapping of Theo for 17 days in 1971. He was eventually released after a ransom of about 7m Deutschmarks (then worth about £800,000) was paid. The brothers intensely guarded their privacy and were rarely if ever seen outside their fortress-like homes overlooking the Ruhr valley near Essen. Their reclusive nature increased after Theo was kidnapped and held for ransom for 17 days in 1971. Karl maintained the most intensely low profile, with his last reported public comments dating back to 1953.
When Berthold Albrecht, Theo's son, died aged 58 in 2012, the family announced the news weeks after the death with full-page spreads in German newspapers. The brothers' strict eye on cost control extended to their graves. They bought their plots in a municipal cemetery on the outskirts of Essen in 1997. The site was left abandoned for many years and became so overgrown with weeds that the cemetery management wrote a letter of complaint, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel.
It did not exactly spur them into action, but eventually Aldi trucks turned up with Mediterranean rhododendrons and cypress trees. The brothers had, apparently, been waiting for the shrubs to go on offer in their stores.
A spokesman for the city of Essen, in the Rhine-Ruhr region, where Albrecht lived, said a funeral was held on Monday for close family only.A spokesman for the city of Essen, in the Rhine-Ruhr region, where Albrecht lived, said a funeral was held on Monday for close family only.
The cradle of the Albrecht brothers' chain was their mother's small grocery business in Essen, from which they created one of the nation's largest food retailers with their focus on a limited selection of bargain goods in spartan stores.
Aldi, a contraction of "Albrecht Discount", was split into two divisions covering north and south Germany in 1960. Theo took the north and Karl the south.
The dominance of Aldi and rival Lidl has made it hard for international firms, such as Walmart, to break into the supermarket scene in Europe's largest economy.
Karl's brother Theo died aged 88 in July 2010, leaving his wealth to the family foundation.
Aldi Süd, which has about 1,880 supermarkets in the south of Germany, had sales of about €15bn euros ($20bn or £11.8bn) in 2012, according to media reports.