Aldi trusts its foreign operations to a new holding company

For the first time, Aldi Nord is creating a holding company for its activities abroad. This should enable the discount retailer to strengthen its international position.

New structure

In Germany, Aldi Nord is lagging behind, while growth abroad is still not translating into real profits. In fact, in most foreign markets, Aldi is still making losses, Deloitte concludes in a report. CEO Torsten Hufnagel now wants to change this by creating the holding company Aldi Nord International for all European divisions outside Germany. Currently, Aldi Poland is the first to be housed there, but the others are expected to follow in the coming months, LebensmittelZeitung reports.

When he took office in 2018, Hufnagel said that growth had to come mainly from abroad. Now, with a unified structure, it’s time to tackle that task. Group CEO Hufnagel and former German CEO Nicolas de Lope will head the group. The committee also includes former Belgian CEO Hendrik van de Walle, who will however be retiring in a few months’ time.

European international activities account for around 50% of total revenue. Yet Hufnagel is not afraid of radical decisions: last summer, for the first time, Aldi withdrew from a country, namely Denmark. Moreover, country managers are said to enjoy more leeway. US operations are not covered by the new structure.