GERMANY: Lidl owner seeks to lift sales by a quarter by 2020 | Progresiv
The Schwarz group which owns German discount supermarket chain Lidl wants to increase sales by more than a quarter to 100 billion euros by 2020, its chief executive was quoted as saying. 
Schwarz group head Klaus Gehrig told Germany's Manager Magazin the growth plan is focused on a big expansion of the Lidl chain and a restructuring of the group's Kaufland hypermarkets, which account for a quarter of sales. "Number one: we want Lidl to get stronger in existing markets. Number two: we will expand to new countries. Number three: we will fundamentally overhaul Kaufland," Gehrig told the magazine. Based in Neckarsulm in southern Germany, Lidl is owned by Germany's richest man, Dieter Schwarz, son of the company's founder Josef Schwarz. The Schwarz group saw 2014 sales rise 7 percent to 79.3 billion euros, putting it ahead of Europe's erstwhile biggest retailer Carrefour.
Lidl has expanded rapidly in Europe to almost 10,000 stores, including 3,200 in Germany, 1,400 in France and hundreds each in Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland, hurting market leaders like Tesco. Last year, Lidl, which opened its first store in Germany in 1973, delayed until 2018 a plan to follow its arch-rival Aldi into the U.S. market. It is also planning to expand to Lithuania and Serbia.
Lidl boss Sven Seidel told Manager Magazin the firm planned a gradual start to its U.S. ambitions, targeting an initial number of stores in the "mid double digits".
In a separate interview with German trade magazine Lebensmittel Zeitung, Seidel said Lidl was planning an overhaul of its stores in markets like France, particularly smaller ones. Meanwhile, Kaufland head Frank Lehmann told the magazine the hypermarket chain would concentrate on its existing markets, in particularly launching a major restructuring in Germany, where it is considering the viability of 20 to 30 of its 640 stores. Gehrig, who joined Lidl from Aldi in 1976 and took over as chief executive from Dieter Schwarz in 2004, said he planned to transfer his responsibilities to "stable management structures" as he heads towards his 70th birthday in 2018.
"These freedoms that I currently enjoy will no longer exist to this degree. I am beyond my sell-by date as concerns the extent of my powers and areas of competence," he said. Seidel was appointed head of Lidl last year after the Schwarz group removed his long-serving predecessor, citing "unbridgeable" differences over strategy. (www.reuters.com)
