German supermarkets Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd are considering a merger, after operating separately since the early 1960s. What would the change mean for customers?
According to WirtschaftsWoche, supermarkets Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd are in “secret merger discussions”. The German magazine reported that multiple new business setups were on the cards, meaning it is yet unclear what the merger could mean for customers. In one scenario, the two independent supermarket companies would be merged into a single holding company.
For now, the sister supermarkets will continue to operate independently, but work more closely in specific areas, such as staffing, selling more of the same product ranges and managing branches outside of Germany. The two supermarkets had already taken similar steps to work more closely in 2020, including unifying their own-brand products and sharing TV advertising spots.
According to figures from the EHI Retail Institute in Cologne, after Lidl, Aldi Süd was the second most profitable discount supermarket in Germany in 2023. With Netto in third place, Aldi Nord is the fourth most profitable discounter.
From a customer's perspective, Aldi Süd offers a broader product range of slightly higher quality, and tidier, better-organised stores. Aldi Nord has a more basic product range, and the shop layout is more utilitarian.
Founded by the Albrecht family in 1913, Aldi's operations were taken over by the Albrecht brothers, Theo and Karl, in 1945. The story goes that the brothers had a dispute in 1961, possibly over whether to sell cigarettes, and decided to split their operations. Since then, Theo’s family has run Aldi Nord, and Karl’s family has run Aldi Süd.
The 1961 split created Germany’s so-called “Aldi Äquator” (Aldi equator), which runs through North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony. Shops to the south of the border are run by Aldi Süd, and to the north, Aldi Nord.
International operations are also divided; Aldi shops in Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Romania and Austria are led by Aldi Süd, while shops in Poland, Spain, France and the Netherlands are run by Aldi Nord.
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