Colruyt () is a Belgian supermarket chain with the headquarters in

Halle, Belgium Halle (; , ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (''arrondissement'') of the province of Flemish Brabant. It is located on the Brussels–Charleroi Canal and on the Flemish side of the language border that separa ...

. Colruyt carries the surname of the founder of the family business, the Colruyt family still owns the company. Colruyt is part of

Colruyt Group Colruyt Group is a Belgian family-owned retail corporation that is managing the Colruyt supermarkets and other subsidiaries such as OKay, Bio-Planet, DATS 24, DreamLand, DreamBaby, and more. Founded in 1928 by Franz Colruyt, the group toda ...

, a Belgian multinational family business in wholesale distribution that evolved from the Colruyt supermarkets. It is competing with hard discounters such as

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

and

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

countries where it is a well established market leader. The current manager is Jef Colruyt. The company's retail trade division includes the direct supply of products to retail customers operating through brands Colruyt, OKay, Bio-Planet, DreamLand and ColliShop, among others. The company supplies to wholesalers and affiliated independent merchants in Belgium, France and Luxembourg. It also supplies fuels through DATS 24 filling stations in Belgium and France, provides printing and document management solutions (Druco/Mitto) and engineering activities (Intrion), and produces renewable energy (WE Power).

History

* 1925 – Franz Colruyt, baker at Lembeek (near Halle) creates his own business in

colonial goods In economics, colonial goods are goods imported from European colonies, in particular coffee, tea, spices, rice, sugar, cocoa and chocolate, and tobacco. At a time when food and agriculture represented a relatively large proportion of overall ec ...

(coffee, spices, etc.). * 1950 – Creation of the "nv Ets Franz Colruyt", food wholesaler, which will over time become Colruyt Group * 1958 – Jo Colruyt and his brothers take over the management of the company GV * 1994 – Death of Jo Colruyt. His son Jef Colruyt succeeds him.

References

External links

* Supermarkets of Belgium Belgian brands Companies based in Flemish Brabant {{supermarket-stub