Rumours are once again circulating that German retailing giants Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd could be about to merge, to create a retail behemoth with total sales of €115 billion per year.
According to Manager Magazin, 'rough plans' regarding the reunification of the two Aldis – which were split apart by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1961 – have already been drawn up, while the ownership structure of the potential future entity is said to have been 'clarified'.
According to the report, a joint holding company is set to be established, in which both companies will be represented equally, with Germany's cartel office reportedly giving its blessing to the proposed merger.
However, should Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd push forward with merger plans, there are still numerous tax and legal issues that will need to be resolved before a deal is completed.
A Retail Giant
The scale of a combined Aldi would be vast, encompassing more than 11,000 outlets on four continents – with over 5,100 Aldi Nord stores joining up with the 6,500-strong Aldi Süd estate.
This united entity would boast close to a quarter of a million employees.
Shoppers would also be able to benefit from even cheaper prices, given the combined buying power of a united Aldi.
Purchasing And Product Development
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd already have close connections from a purchasing and product development perspective, so much so that the discounters recently announced a series of joint price initiatives amid surging inflation – in March, both Aldi's announced price cuts on cooking oil and cheese, at the start of June, they followed this up with a dairy products pledge, and last week they implemented price cuts on frozen fish and cooking foil.
Both retailers were also among the signatories to a new Pakt gegen Lebensmitteverschwendung ('Pact against Food Waste') in Germany earlier this week.
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd are keeping schtum for the moment, but should a coming together take place, it would almost certainly be the largest retail merger of the year – if not the decade – and create a retail powerhouse capable of true global domination.
Aldi founders Theo and Karl Albrecht died in 2010 and 2014, respectively. They split the chain in the 1960s following a feud over whether to sell cigarettes in the stores.
Read More: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Aldi Süd
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
