Lidl facts: You should know this about the discounter
We have listed facts about the Lidl company for you. The supermarket chain from Germany is now expanding worldwide. In this article you will read what you should know about the discounter.
The Lidl Foundation & Co. KG was founded in its current form as early as 1973 and has become a major discounter not only in Germany but worldwide. Together with the discounter Kaufland it belongs to the Schwarz group, which was founded by Dieter Schwarz.
- The company from Neckarsulm now operates over 10, 000 branches in 29 countries and employs approximately 79, 000 people. However, the company's history goes back to 1930. Josef Schwarz, the father of Dieter Schwarz, got involved in the Lidl & Co. Südfrüchthandlung, which was continuously expanded and expanded.
- Lidl has had a strict expansion policy since 2006. The discounter established branches in France, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the Canary Islands, among other places, and displaced local discounters from first place. In order to finance this insane expansion, Lidl took out a loan of EUR 200 million in 2010 from Europäische Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). This money was intended solely for the purchase and expansion of real estate. There are also Lidl branches beyond Europe. New offices were opened in the United States in 2017.
- The discount store offers all kinds of different foods, around 1, 600 food items are in the range. It outperforms its main competitor Aldi, which only has 700 food items in its range. Lidl sells branded articles, no-name articles and also private label articles. There are also various non-food items in the weekly changing assortment, such as electronics, textiles and leisure items.
- Lidl was already in the media because of negative criticism. Mainly the working conditions and decoy offers were criticized. The so-called decoy offers were always bought up after an hour in the assortment, although by law a stock of at least two days must be available for such heavily advertised items. This is how the discounter lured customers into the branches.
- In addition, the company has already been criticized by many that the working conditions are too bad. Among other things, the union ver.di, the left and various magazines accused Lidl that the security measures, the hygiene conditions and payment could be expanded.
In the next article we have listed more facts about Lidl and its founder.