Dieter Schwarz

Dieter Schwarz is a German billionaire businessman, born in 1939 and owner of the Schwarz-Gruppe, and the former chairman and chief executive of the Lidl and Kaufland supermarket chains. In 1968 he and his father opened their first supermarket in Backnang under the name Handelshof, which became Kaufland in 1984. In 1973 he opened his first discount store in Ludwigshafen am Rhein and acquired the right to the name Lidl for 1,000 Deutsche Mark. Lidl began expanding beyond Germany in 1988 and by 2022 operated roughly 12,000 stores across Europe and the United States, the largest discount retail chain by store count. Since 1999 he has managed his wealth through the tax-exempt Dieter Schwarz Foundation, which supports education, child care and research. He lives in Heilbronn and avoids interviews.