Lidl Company Profile
Lidl was founded by Josef Schwarz in Germany in 1932 and is now one of Europe’s leading food retailers.
The company provides a selection of brand-agnostic products at discount prices and aims to offer an easy shopping experience. Around 90% of products in-store are own-label brands made specifically for Lidl to enable the retailer to offer competitive prices. Lidl also stocks major brands such as Uncles Bens, Walkers and Cadburys
Still run from its German headquarters, Lidl has 11,500 stores all over Europe and has been expanding into the US since 2017. It now has 165 stores serving American customers. Germany is its biggest market with over 3,000 stores, followed by France where there are around 1,600 stores.
In 1994, Lidl began serving UK customers with an initial 10 stores. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength and now has close to 1,000 stores across Britain. It continues to invest and grow its presence in high streets and towns across the UK.
A key value of Lidl is to provide high quality food whilst also sourcing locally wherever possible. More than two-thirds of its products are now sourced domestically. The Lidl bakery section was launched in 2012 and remains very successful.
Lidl does not have the option to order or have groceries delivered online. Despite the growth in deliveries throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the retailer has maintained that it will not launch a service any time soon.
Products & services:
- Fresh produce
- Meat, poultry and seafood
- Refrigerated and Frozen food
- Household essentials
- Health and Beauty products
- Alcohol
- Bakeries
Ownership
The retailer is owned by Lidl Stiftung and Co. which is part of the Schwarz Group, Europe’s largest food retailer. The group also owns Kaufland, a similar discount supermarket, which has stores across Europe.
