Karl Wlaschek

Karl Wlaschek (1917 to 2015) was an Austrian retailer who founded the supermarket chain Billa. He studied chemistry at TU Wien until he was conscripted in 1938 and, after the Second World War, worked as a bar pianist and bandleader under the name Charly Walker while he lacked the money to open his own dance cafe. In 1953 he opened a perfumery in the Margareten district of Vienna that sold brand-name products at discount prices; by 1960 the company, Warenhandel Karl Wlaschek, had 45 branches in Austria. He carried the discount idea into groceries, introduced self-service and in 1961 named his stores Billa, short for Billiger Laden, meaning cheap shop. The group expanded abroad in the 1990s as Eurobilla and in 1996 he sold it to Germany's REWE Group for 1.1 billion euros. He then invested in Vienna real estate and was ranked among the richest Austrians.