Aldi

Overview:

Aldi is a privately held Germany’s leading grocery store chain that was established in 1913. Aldi has found success by keeping its cost low, no advertising and brand label products, and simple look of its stores. By the early 21st century the company was operating more than 5,000 stores throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. As of 2009, Aldi had opened nearly 1000 stores in close to 30 states, mostly in the eastern half of the United States .[1]

History:

The first Aldi store was opened in Essen, Germany, in 1948. The Albrecht brothers, who had spent time in prison during the World War II, understood the devastation that was caused by the war. They knew that the consumers could only afford cheap products and pay only the lowest prices possible. The emphasis on reducing costs began as a necessity and developed into a hardcore company philosophy. The company refined its strategy and built up significant reserves in the postwar German grocery market.[2]

The brothers name their store Aldi that was driven by their own name Albrecht and discount. Aldi started to expand slowly into other areas of Europe, growing steadily and by year 1958, the company had opened 300 stores, with revenues exceeding 100 million deutsche marks. During the early year the company had two divisions known as AldiSud and AdliNord. The divisions were closely linked, but according to Deutsche Welle in 2005, the both companies were “a complex web of private trusts and holding companies.” According to many analysts, company made a big impact in Belgium , where it had 260 stores and approximately $1 billion sales by 1992. Furthermore, Aldi stores has 5 percent of the grocery business in the Netherlands and had set up about 130 outlets in Austria and another 110 in Denmark . Although, Aldi entered in many of its neighboring countries by late 1990s, most of is sales came from Germany. By the late 1980s Aldi was among the top food retail stores in Germany and had nearly...