Aldi

The Aldi Group is a retail company founded in 1946 in Mülheim an der Ruhr by the brothers Theo (born 1922) and Karl Albrecht (born 1920). It consists of the two independent regional companies ALDI Purchasing GmbH & Co. OHG-Nord and ALDI Purchasing GmbH & Co. OHG-South (Aldi North and Aldi South). Aldi is an abbreviation and stands for Albrecht Discount. The idea behind ALDI was to deduct the then legally permitted discount of 3% from the price and to do without everything that cost unnecessary money, such as elaborate decoration or fittings in the branches and expensive advertising. In addition, savings were also made by keeping the sales area relatively small and thus the shop rent was relatively low. The customers then benefited from the many savings in the form of low prices

Aldi Nord currently has around 2,500 branches and Aldi Süd around 1,600 branches. Around the world, the Albrecht brothers operate around 6,600 branches, with an average of one branch being added somewhere in the world every week. Internationally, Aldi Nord has branches in Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Spain and Portugal and Aldi Süd in Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, the USA and Australia. A branch was opened in Hungary in 2006 and Poland is to be opened up in 2007 as well. Aldi used to have a reputation for being a poor people`s shop and the products weren`t exactly considered to be of high quality. But this image has changed and today Aldi can even often score points with the Stiftung Warentest. The Aldi range is structured in such a way that the products have a high turnover rate with a certain minimum turnover. That`s why the range of around 700 items is not particularly large, but interesting for the average consumer.

But Aldi has also had a lot to offer in the non-food sector since the early 1990s. These products are always offered for a short time in a campaign. It often happens that related articles are offered as part of a theme week. Initially, only textiles and household items were offered in the non-food sector. Later, however, more and more consumer electronics products were added, which can be seen not least in the legendary Aldi PC.

When it comes to marketing, Aldi has never employed an agency since it was founded. The ads that Aldi puts out in the newspapers every week have not changed for years and point to the current offers without much fanfare. The only difference between the ads and the past is that they are not only larger but also colored. Aldi follows the usual shop opening times in the industry, but adapts to the opening times of the other shops in large shopping centers.

Aldi is in fifth place in the food retail market, behind the companies Edeka, Metro, Rewe and the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland, KaufMarkt and Handelshof).