Lidl


Lidl is a trademark used by two German international discount supermarket chains that operates over 12,900 stores. LD Stiftung operates the stores in Germany and Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG in 30 other countries. LD Stiftung is headquartered in Bad Wimpfen and the Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG in Neckarsulm, both in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Both sister companies belong to the Schwarz Group, which also includes hypermarket chain Kaufland.
Lidl is the chief competitor of the German discount chain Aldi in several markets.

History

In 1930, Josef Schwarz became a partner in a company based in Heilbronn named Südfrüchte Großhandlung Lidl & Co. which had been established by Anton Lidl since at least 1858 under the name A.Lidl & Cie specialising in the sale of exotic fruits. Schwarz renamed the company Lidl & Schwarz KG and expanded into a food wholesaler.
In 1977, under his son Dieter Schwarz, the Schwarz Group began to focus on discount markets, larger supermarkets, and cash and carry wholesale markets. Dieter did not want to use the name Schwarz-Markt and wanted to use the name of his father's former business partner, A. Lidl, but legal reasons prevented him from using that name for his discount stores. When he discovered a newspaper article about a painter and retired schoolteacher Ludwig Lidl, he bought the rights to the name from him for 1,000 German marks.
The Lidl trademark and the two sister companies are part of the Schwarz Group, the fifth-largest retailer in the world with sales of €104.3 billion.
The first Lidl discount store was opened in 1973, copying the Aldi concept. Schwarz rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from the shelves, and cut costs by keeping the size of the retail outlets as small as possible. By 1977, the Lidl chain comprised 33 discount stores.
Lidl opened its first UK store in 1994. Its grocery market share in the UK was 8.1% in June 2025.
Sven Seidel was appointed CEO of the company in March 2014, after the previous CEO Karl-Heinz Holland stepped down. Holland had served as chief executive since 2008 but left due to undisclosed "unbridgeable" differences over future strategy. Seidel stepped down from his position in February 2017 after Manager Magazin reported he had fallen out of favour with Klaus Gehrig, who has headed the Schwarz Group since 2004. Seidel was succeeded as CEO by Dane Jesper Højer, previously head of Lidl's international buying operation.
In June 2015, the company announced it would establish a United States headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Lidl has major distribution centers in Mebane, North Carolina, and Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The company initially focused on opening locations in East Coast states, between Pennsylvania and Georgia, and as far west as Ohio. In June 2017, Lidl opened its first stores in the United States in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and other mid-Atlantic cities. The company planned to open a total of one hundred U.S. stores by the summer of 2018. In November 2018, Lidl announced plans to acquire 27 Best Market stores in New York and New Jersey. In December 2018, Lidl opened its first location in New York City, in the Staten Island Mall. The company continued to expand throughout the eastern U.S., with over 100 stores by the end of 2020. In August 2020, Lidl announced that it planned to open up another 50 stores in the U.S. by the end of 2021. As of 2024 there were 173 stores in the US.
In April 2022, Lidl postponed its expansion in Ukraine due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2021, Lidl planned to phase out the selling of cigarettes in all its Dutch stores by 2024 as part of the 'smoke-free generation'.
In 2025, Lidl committed to increase the proportion of sales of plant-based foods by 20 percent from a 2023 baseline by 2030.

Corporate affairs

Business trends

The key trends for Lidl are :

Business model

Like fellow German supermarket Aldi, Lidl has a zero waste, no-frills, "pass-the-savings-to-the-consumer" approach of displaying most products in their original delivery cartons, allowing the customers to take the product directly from the carton. When the carton is empty, it is simply replaced with a full one. Staffing is low.
Compared to Aldi, there are generally more branded products offered. Lidl distributes many low-priced gourmet foods by producing each of them in a single European Union country for its whole worldwide chain, but it also sources many local products from the country where the store is located. Like Aldi, Lidl has special weekly offers, and its stock of non-food items often changes. In contrast to Aldi, Lidl advertises extensively in its homeland of Germany.
Like Aldi, Lidl does not play mood music in most countries, including Germany. Lidl stores have PA systems for important announcements but do not broadcast commercials.
The Lidl operation in the United Kingdom took a different approach from Germany, with a focus on marketing and public relations, and providing employee benefits not required by law, including paying the independently verified living wage and offering a staff discount. Upmarket products were introduced, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. This required significant investment in marketing to produce sales growth but had an effect on Lidl's logistical operation and pressure on profits. Ronny Gottschlich, who had run Lidl GB for the six years to 2016, was responsible for this approach, which led to friction with the head office, due to the cost involved. In September 2016, Gottschlich unexpectedly left and was replaced by the Austrian sales and operations director, German-national Christian Härtnagel.

Stores

, Lidl has a presence with stores in 31 countries, LD Stiftung operates the stores in Germany while Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG operates the stores everywhere else where Lidl stores are in.
CountryYear
opened		Number
of stores		Number of
warehouses		State of
the data
199825532026-01
199530752025-10
201014322025-12
200611332025-12
20102212025-12
200332652025-12
200516322025-10

2022210
2025-12
200220832025-12
19891,653262026-01
19733,301392025-12
199923152025-12
20042184 + 1 2025-10
200018732025-06
1992808122025-12

2021381
20168422026-01

2001130
20081012025-12
19974407
200298713 + 1 2025-11
19952834 + 1 2026-01
201138862025-10
20188422026-01
200417932025-12

20076922025-12
199473752025-12
200320532025-12
200919132025-11
19941,04514
20171965
Total12,905183 + 3

Future markets

CountryOpening yearNotes
2026Under construction
2026Under construction

2026Under construction
TBDUnder construction
TBDExpansion confirmed due to a launched careers page.

2026Under construction

2026Under construction

Former markets

CountryYear openedYear closedNotes
20042008Closed due to poor sales and political issues.

Tailwind shipping - Gartner KG

In July 2022 Lidl founded the "Tailwind Shipping Lines GmbH & Co. KG" which is headquartered in Hamburg. The shipping company operates a total of nine container ships to transport goods from Asia to Europe. Some of the ships are owned, others are chartered. In addition there are 21,300 containers, 300 of which are freezer containers. In June 2025 it was announced, that Tailwind had ordered five medium-sized container ships with up to 8,400 TEU. The contract to build the ships was awarded in early 2025 by the Hamburg shipping company "Peter Döhle" and the order was then taken over by Tailwind. Each ship will cost approximately 100 million Euros. Delivery will take place in 2027 and 2028.
In July 2024, it was announced that a Schwarz Group investment company had acquired a 35% stake in the Austrian freight forwarder Gartner. With 2100 trucks and 3700 trailers, Gartner is one of Europe's largest freight forwarders. There are 22 branches in 8 countries and 3800 employees.