Dieter Schwarz (born 24 September 1939) is a German

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, and owner of the Schwarz-Gruppe. He is the former chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the supermarket chain

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 ...

, and the

hypermarket A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...

chain

Kaufland Kaufland () is a German hypermarket chain, part of the Schwarz Gruppe which also owns Lidl. The hypermarket directly translates to English as "buy-land." It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm and quickly expanded to become a major ch ...

Career

Founding of the Lidl Discount Corporation (1973)

In 1973, Dieter Schwarz opened his first discount store in

Ludwigshafen Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig's Port upon the Rhine"; Palatine German dialects, Palatine German: ''Ludwichshafe''), is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the German state of Rh ...

am Rhein on Mundenheimer Straße. Unable to freely adopt the name "Lidl" for legal reasons and wishing to avoid the unintended wordplay "Schwarzmarkt" (black market), he secured the rights by purchasing the naming rights from retired vocational school teacher and artist Ludwig Lidl for 1,000

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

. Following Lidl’s expansion across Germany, the company began entering markets in other parts of Europe starting in 1988. By 2022, Lidl operated approximately 12,000 stores across Europe and the United States, making it the world’s largest discount retail chain by number of locations.

Founding of the Kaufland Supermarket Chain (1984)

In 1968, Dieter Schwarz and his father opened their first supermarket under the name ''Handelshof'' in Backnang, a town in the Swabian region. In 1984, the first store under the new name ''

'' was launched in

Neckarsulm Neckarsulm () is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Heilbronn, and part of the district of Heilbronn. , Neckarsulm had 26,800 inhabitants. The name Neckarsulm derives from the city's location where the Neckar and Sulm rivers ...

, with all existing ''Handelshof'' locations subsequently rebranded. After German reunization in 1989/90, Kaufland expanded aggressively into the eastern federal states, initially retaining the ''Handelshof'' name in some locations (e.g., Freiberg/Sa, Leipziger Straße). The first Kaufland supermarket in East Germany opened in

Meißen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

in 1990. Today, Kaufland dominates the supermarket sector in eastern Germany. The company’s international expansion began in 1998 with a store in

Kladno Kladno (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 70,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the region and has a rich industrial history. Administrative division Kladno consists of six municipal parts ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, followed by further outlets across Central and Eastern Europe. As of 2020, Kaufland operates over 1,470 supermarkets in Europe.

Net worth

In 2009, he was estimated to be worth 10

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

euro. As of October 2012, he was estimated to be worth 12 billion euro, an increase from 11.5 billion euro in 2011. In 2013, he was estimated be worth €19.6 billion, and ranked the 24th richest person in the world. As of February 2014, he was ranked as 23rd richest person in the world in the

Hurun Report Hurun () is a town in Jingxi, Guangxi, China. See also *List of township-level divisions of Guangxi This is a list of township-level divisions of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China (PRC). After province, prefectur ...

Global Rich List. In 2023, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' listed Schwarz as the wealthiest man in Germany and the 25th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$47.2 billion. Since 1999, Schwarz manages his resources through the tax-exempt Dieter Schwarz Foundation ( gGmbH, limited liability company with a charitable purpose), when he transferred his shares in Lidl and Kaufland into it, deciding just how much of his profits go into the foundation. The Dieter Schwarz Foundation supports education and daycare facilities for children, for example, as well as science and research projects. As per Forbes list of The Richest People In The World, dated 8 March 2024, Dieter Schwarz is ranked #37 with a net worth of $38 Billion.

Personal life

In 1963, Schwarz married Franziska Weipert. They live in

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

and have two daughters, Regine and Monika. He was strongly influenced by his membership in the Protestant free church community. Schwarz is known to be very protective of his privacy, to an extent that no media recordings of Schwarz exist, and he refuses any kind of interview. Meanwhile, just three photos of him are known to exist in the press or in the image search of Google.News article with photo of Schwartz
1 March 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarz, Dieter 1939 births Living people Businesspeople from Baden-Württemberg German billionaires People from Heilbronn Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg German chief executives German businesspeople in retailing 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople