Schwarz Gruppe
The Schwarz Group is a family-owned multinational retail group that operates grocery shops under the Lidl and Kaufland brands. It is the largest European retailer [1] and the fourth-largest retailer in the world by revenue[2]. The group operates supermarkets in most European countries and is currently expanding in the United States. A planned market entry to Australia was cancelled on short notice. The Schwarz Group stores sell mostly private label brands and Schwarz group also operates own production facilities for baking goods, softdrinks or ice cream.
Private | |
Industry | Retail |
Headquarters | Neckarsulm, Germany |
Area served | Europe and US |
Key people | Klaus Gehrig (CEO) Dieter Schwarz (Owner) |
Brands | Lidl Kaufland GreenCycle |
Revenue | €104.3 billion (2018/2019) |
Number of employees | 429,000 |
Corporate
Schwarz Group is headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was founded by Dieter Schwarz and achieved a turnover of €104.3 billion in the fiscal year 2018/2019.[3] The Schwarz Gruppe is owned by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation GmbH (99.9% of the shares) and the Schwarz Gruppe Industrietreuhand KG (0.1% of the shares); the latter holds 100% of the voting rights.[4]
The Schwarz Group operated over 11,800 stores in 2018 (around 10,000 Lidl branches, the rest Kaufland) across 30 countries. Schwarz Gruppe expanded its business to Australia and Lithuania in 2016, Serbia and the US in 2017, Russia in 2020. Online sales are operated via Schwarz Gruppe E-Commerce, a sister company of Lidl.[5] In the ranking the 500 largest family-owned German businesses, WirtschaftsBlatt ranks the Schwarz Gruppe first. The top 3 privately held European companies in the PrivCo 25 Europe were: Schwarz Group, Trafigura and INEOS Group with cumulative revenue of over €200 billion.
With the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, the company is supporting education and science primarily in Dieter Schwarz's hometown Heilbronn [6].
References
- "Retail Index". Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- "10 biggest retailers in the world". Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- dpa (2014-01-25). "Lidl-Gruppe hat Metro als größten Handelskonzern abgelöst" (in German). Frankfurter Rundschau. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
- Karsten Langer: Dieter Schwarz: Aldis Erzfeind. manager-magazin.de, 2. März 2004
- "lidl-reisen - ...einfach urlaubiger!". www.lidl-reisen.de. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- "Dieter Schwarz Stiftung". Retrieved 2020-08-06.