Richest man

Chapter 14 Europe: The Brothers Albrecht (1)
Aldi's success has nothing to do with money, but a belief!
——Brother Albrecht of "Frankfurt Review": Challenge the "poor people" of Wal-Mart In July 2004, the American "Forbes" magazine announced the latest annual wealth list, and the top three were: Bill. Brothers Gates, Warren Buffett and Carl Albrecht.This ranking did not cause too much controversy, and as in previous years, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett still attracted most people's attention, and there were countless photos with the smiling faces of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Appeared in thousands of magazines and newspapers around the world, the flashing spotlights almost blinded Bill Gates.

Unlike the first two, people seem to have forgotten the existence of Albrecht, who is ranked third. If they don't read the introduction, people don't even know what this person does.And if you look through the "Forbes" wealth list in recent years, you can be surprised to find that: Albrecht appears on the list "on time" every year, especially in the past three years, you can always be among Bill Gates and Bill Gates. After Warren Buffett found his name.And those who are familiar with the wealth list can always find another person named Albrecht not far behind Karl Albrecht.

This is the famous richest brother in Germany: the Albrecht brothers, the founders of the famous German chain store Aldi (Aldi). In 2005, due to the slow economic recovery in Europe and the increasing competition in the supermarket industry, the ranking of the Albrecht brothers dropped. The elder brother Karl ranked eighth with 185 billion US dollars, and the younger brother Special Olympics ranked 8th with 155 billion US dollars. 20th, but they are still the well-deserved richest people in Germany.However, what is not commensurate with their "richest man" status is their super low profile - when Bill Gates or Warren Buffett is smiling and being interviewed in front of the camera, the two brothers may be in the yard of a grass cottage in the country lawn mowing.It was found that the last interview with the brothers was in 1953, while the most recent newspaper that published their photographs was published [-] years ago.The only thing everyone knows is that their elder brother Karl is [-] years old and his younger brother Theo is [-] years old.

In fact, Aldi, the chain store empire founded by the brothers, is a household name in Germany and even in Europe: In Germany, 8000% of the 75 million Germans often shop at Aldi, and about 2000 million of them are regular customers ; In Europe, Aldi already has a 3.5% market share, while Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, only has 6.8%; even Wal-Mart, the world's largest company, has to list Aldi as its main competitor.When retail and consumer market expert Burt Flickinger warned that "one of Wal-Mart's weaknesses is that it doesn't realize what a formidable enemy Aldi is," Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wilts was quick to respond. In response, he said: "Of course we realize that Aldi is a strong opponent." Because when Wal-Mart saw Aldi at its door, any avoidance and contempt were impossible.

No matter what the opponents say, the Albrecht brothers have been quietly doing their own business on German soil.Aldi is now divided into two major companies in the north and the south. The gradually internationalized Aldi Group in the south is under the control of his brother Karl. It owns 27 companies and has more than 2300 supermarkets in Germany and other countries around the world: the west and south of Germany operate about There are 1400 Aldi stores, more than 250 in the UK and Ireland, more than 21 in 570 states from the east coast of the United States to Kansas, and more than 240 Aldi in Austria, known locally as Hofer.The younger brother Special Olympics in the north currently operates more than 3900 shopping malls in northern Germany.At present, the Aldi supermarket chain operated by the two brothers exceeds 6000.

A corporate specimen of the standard German version

Although Germany has left too many bitter memories to the world in the past 100 years, we will remember after time has settled down: Although war lunatics like Hitler were born there, it is also the hometown of the writer Goethe. There are also many simple and kind-hearted people.Even from a certain point of view, the common and unique temperament of the Germans destined them to be a special nation; through the blue eyes of every German, you can see more perseverance and wisdom.

This characteristic of the Germans is particularly prominent in the economic circles.For a long time, world manufacturing was almost equivalent to German manufacturing. As long as any product was marked "made in Germany", it was equivalent to a guarantee of quality.Therefore, despite the catastrophe of the war, a number of large enterprises representing Germany's advanced productive forces have sprung up rapidly on German land. The success of Siemens, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz is the best interpretation of this characteristic of the Germans. Even today, these enterprises still represent the highest level in the world.

The successful Aldi is also a standard German version of the corporate specimen that grew up in such an environment.

starting point at the end of the war
The Albrecht brothers were born in an ordinary miner's family in Germany.At that time, their father had to leave the mine because of silicosis, and went to work in a bakery with low income; as a last resort, their mother opened a small food store with an area of ​​35 square meters in the miners' residential area in their hometown of Eisen.This was 1913, before they were born.

After graduating from middle school, the two brothers decided to change their family circumstances, and each entered other people's food stores as apprentices, hoping to inherit the family business.However, the Second World War interrupted their fledgling careers: both brothers were drafted into the Nazi army, Theo Albrecht went to Africa as an alternate soldier, Karl was sent to the Eastern Front as a regular soldier battlefield.

In 1946, Germany was defeated, and the brothers also returned to their hometown from the prisoner-of-war camp.They opened a grocery store in their hometown that is almost three times the size of their mother's.

At that time, as Germany had just emerged from the troubles of the war, the living standards of the people were still quite poor, and all kinds of industries in the country were waiting to be promoted.In this case, the Albrecht brothers positioned their food store customers as poor consumers who were in urgent need of food and clothing-they sold butter at the lowest price on the market at that time, which was a great success , The brothers' business is booming day by day.However, the employees had to move the unsold large quantities of butter to the basement every night after closing, because the brothers were reluctant to spend money on refrigerators.

The branch soon opened near a large supermarket with many customers. The brothers simply gave up dealing in fresh food and focused on food that is not easy to deteriorate and easy to store in a short period of time.The discount store idea quickly proved to be a success, and chain stores sprung up in the industrial Ruhr area.By the end of the 50s, there were more than 300 supermarket chains, and the annual turnover exceeded 1 million marks in a short period of time.

A leap to break through the "bottleneck"
After experiencing the rapid development in the early stage of entrepreneurship, Aldi encountered the first "bottleneck" of development.Aldi is popular with low-income families in Germany and foreign students because it has been using cheap "tricks".But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, Aldi's only criterion is low price, while ignoring the pursuit of quality and other aspects, but the actual situation is that with the rapid development of the post-war German economy, people's lives are also undergoing changes. change.

The Albrecht brothers did not seem to notice this change. Both brothers stubbornly believed that as long as the price of the product was low enough, consumers would continue to be attracted to buy it.But the result is that for a long time, as long as the economic conditions are still good, Germans have become disdainful to go shopping in the Aldi chain store, because people think that walking on the street with Aldi shopping bags is an unsightly thing. A shame.

Fortunately, the Albrecht brothers discovered this mistake in time. In the 20s, Aldi strengthened the quality control of the product through a series of measures such as adjusting the product structure and grade, and gradually changed the German brand. image in mind.

Nowadays, although the facade and decoration of the Aldi supermarket still inherit the customary frugality and simplicity, there are often luxurious BMWs and Mercedes-Benz cars parked outside the Aldi supermarket-now any consumer in Germany No one, not even the richest, would ever consider it a stigma to shop at Aldi.

Now the quality of the products sold in Aldi Supermarket can withstand any test, because everyone knows that the quality of the products sold in Aldi Supermarket is guaranteed. , No need to state any reason, give a refund" quality assurance, the confidence is because Aldi is now very confident in the quality of the products it sells.

It is precisely because of the two sharp swords of low price and quality as weapons that Aldi has achieved rapid development in the subsequent development. In 2003, Aldi's chain tentacles had extended to 10 countries and regions, with more than 6000 branches and annual sales of 370 billion U.S. dollars; , became the richest man in Germany with a total asset of $340 billion.According to the survey of relevant survey companies, Aldi brand has become the third largest brand in Germany after Siemens and Mercedes-Benz in terms of popularity in Germany.

Five reasons for Aldi's success
From a small grocery store to a chain empire with more than 6000 branches, Aldi has gone through nearly half a century of post-war history in Germany and the ups and downs of the world economy, but the most important thing is , Aldi has gone through the difficult road of company growth. From a grocery store to a chain empire, what people see is not only a change in quantity, but also an accumulation of corporate culture. In Aldi, people can easily Discover many magic weapons to win. They are not necessarily shocking, but they are absolutely practical and unusual.

cheap, cheap, cheap
A reporter from British Reuters described its characteristics after visiting Aldi: "If you enter a British grocery store and then fly to a German grocery store, you will think you are in the third world." The reason why a reporter said this is because all of Aldi's chain stores are almost simple and streamlined, and the more important reason is its ultra-low prices.

Similar to Wal-Mart's business philosophy, in Aldi's business philosophy, low prices are also the first way of doing business, and compared with Wal-Mart, Aldi seems to insist on a more scavenger low price strategy.

The name "Aldi" is composed of the surname Albrecht (Albrecht) and cheap (Discount). In Germany, the Aldi supermarket chain is called a "poor store" because of its The prices are so cheap that even the poorest people can buy them, which explains why Aldi's chain has been thriving even in the worst economic times.There is a set of data like this:
In 2002, due to the economic downturn in Germany, the sales and profits of many companies have shrunk, but Aldi's customers have increased by 20%, and sales have increased by 10%.

Aldi has always insisted on such a "low price" strategy, which is of course related to its specific historical opportunity: because of the shortage of supplies after the war in Germany, people did not have much "spare money" to consume luxury goods, and buying cheap products seemed to be the only option , so Aldi had to choose the "poor man's shop"; but at the same time, an important reason why the brothers still stubbornly abide by this principle is because the brothers still clearly remember a sentence from their mother: "The more difficult people's lives are, The better our lives will be." This may seem a bit inhumane, but it truly illustrates a business principle.

Germany is the land of $10 Mercedes-Benz cars, but it is also a land of dwindling wealth.In Germany, less than one-fifth of the population has a monthly disposable income of more than $1; in this country, even upper-middle-class families who can afford luxury cars are frugal in their daily expenses.Therefore, Aldi's target customers are low-income working class, residents without fixed income and retired elderly.And this will naturally be reflected in the price of the product: in Aldi, the price of a kilogram of flour is 5 yuan, a liter of pure apple juice is 375 yuan, a liter of boxed milk is 1.8 yuan, and a two-roll set is 3.5 yuan. Zhang's Kodak color roll is 3 yuan... This price is cheap even in Chinese supermarkets, not to mention that the per capita income of Germany is 36-18 times that of Chinese urban residents, and such a price, even for the richest woman in Europe, For Johanna Quandt, who owns a 5 percent stake in BMW AG, it's equally alluring.Therefore, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are often parked at the entrance of Aldi in the "poor shop".

Although the price is extremely low, due to the effective control of procurement costs, management costs, and logistics costs, Aldi has successfully kept costs to a minimum. Therefore, Aldi's profits are not low.According to statistics, among all retail enterprises in Germany, Aldi's profitability is now the strongest.

The sales profit margin of general commercial enterprises in Germany is 0.5%-1.5%, but Aldi's sales profit margin is close to 5%.The higher sales profit margin shows that Aldi did not suffer losses while implementing the low-price strategy, but made a lot of money, while its competitors sold at high prices but only made small profits. Well, it is inevitable that there will be an existential crisis!

Strictly control the quantity of commodity varieties

Corresponding to Wal-Mart’s 15 kinds of rich products, in Aldi, you can see no more than 750 kinds of goods at most, and the variety of goods supplied in the South Aldi supermarket chain is limited to 600. within species.

(End of this chapter)