Lidl confirms US ambitions with umpteenth CEO change

Discounter Lidl wants to conquer the American market, but that is not going smoothly. The retailer now gets a new CEO there, already for the fourth time since 2013.

Fourth management change

Michal Lagunionek, former CEO of Lidl in Poland, will lead Lidl in the United States from June. He replaces Johannes Fieber, who is leaving the company after three years, in his own words to spend more time with his family. Nevertheless, it is already the fourth management change since Lidl launched in the US in 2013.

Even though the German retailer was recently named one of the top three supermarkets by readers of USA Today, its US expansion is not going as fast as hoped. Only in 2017 did the discounter manage to open its first stores, two years after opening US headquarters. Today Lidl has 140 stores in the US, rival Aldi has more than ten times as many. Geographically, Lidl’s presence is currently mainly limited to the East Coast.

With Lagunionek, however, Lidl brings out the big guns. He has been with the retailer for more than twenty years and also has a seat on the international board of directors of parent holding company Schwarz Group. According to Fieber he is “one of Lidl’s most experienced and accomplished executives.” The appointment of such a high-ranking person is, according to a spokesperson, indicative of Lidl’s long-term strategy in the US.