Kaufland
Encyclopedia
Kaufland is a German
hypermarket chain part of the same group as Lidl
and Handelshof. It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm
and quickly expanded to become a leader in what was formerly East Germany. The chain operates over 1,000 stores in Germany
, Czech Republic
, Slovakia
, Poland
, Romania
, Bulgaria
and Croatia
.
r. The Second World War interrupted the development of the company.
After the war the company was rebuilt: in 1954 it entered the A & O-chain. With Handels- und Fruchthof Heilbronn GmbH the first regional warehouse was opened in northern Wurttemberg
. In 1964 the company expanded its range of products by opening a meat department. In 1968 the first Handelshof discount store
was opened in Backnang
, and in 1977 at the same place a hypermarket of the same name was established. After the death of Joseph Schwarz in 1977 his son Dieter Schwarz took over the management of the company. In 1984 the first Kaufland hypermarket was opened in Neckarsulm
, the town being the seat of the company's headquarters since 1972.
After the reunification of Germany the Kaufland chain expanded into the Eastern German states and opened numerous markets. The first East German Kaufland store was opened in Meissen
in 1990, the first Kaufmarkt SB Warenhaus opened in 1994 in Zwickau
. The first department store outside of Germany was established in 1998 in Kladno
, Czech Republic. In subsequent years, the company established branches in Slovakia (since 2000), Croatia (2001), Poland (2001), Romania (2005) and Bulgaria (2006).
In 2006 and 2007 other store openings followed in Germany and Kaufland also took over shares of competitores. In February 2009 the corporation claimed to have 73,000 employees in Germany.
In December 2009 Kaufland announced the building of a new meat processing plant in Heiligenstadt
, Thuringia
for a total of €
85 million until 2013. About 400 local employees will then deliver 45,000 tons of meat per year to around 600 stores of the corporation.
In January 2010 it was announced that Karl Lupus GmbH & Co. KG was cleared by antritrust authorities to sell their 12 stores of the famila Handels-Betriebe GmbH & Co. KG Rhein-Neckar and the Cash-&-Carry-Markt Lupus Food Service with 1,400 employees to Kaufland.
On 1 January 2010, the Kaufland group had purchased all five Schleckerland
drug stores in Ehingen
, Geislingen
, Tempe
, Neu-Ulm
, Schwäbisch Gmünd
and all but the Neu-Ulm store had been converted to the Kaufland brand by then. The local Schleckerland was closed down because Kaufland was already present in Neu-Ulm.
From 2011, all Handelshof stores will gradually be converted to the Kaufland brand and will be partly rebuilt and enlarged.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
hypermarket chain part of the same group as Lidl
Lidl
Lidl is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany that operates over 7,200 stores across Europe. The company's full name is Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG...
and Handelshof. It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Stuttgart, and part of the district Heilbronn. As of 2004, Neckarsulm had 27,296 inhabitants....
and quickly expanded to become a leader in what was formerly East Germany. The chain operates over 1,000 stores in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
.
Countries with Kaufland branches
The Kaufland Stiftung & Co. KG is part of the complex corporate structure of the Schwarz-Beteiligungs-GmbH, which is 99.9% owned by Dieter Schwarz and the Dieter Schwarz Stiftung gGmbH is. Among the various land-purchase subsidiaries include the Schwarz-Property Management GmbH & Co. KG, the possession of the hypermarkets is in, and the land purchase goods mbH as operator of self-service markets.History
The history of Kaufland began when Joseph Schwarz entered the Südfrüchte Großhandlung Lidl & Co. at Heilbronn as a shareholder in 1930, which was then renamed Lidl & Schwarz KG. In subsequent years it was the aim of the company to expand its range and become a food wholesaleWholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
r. The Second World War interrupted the development of the company.
After the war the company was rebuilt: in 1954 it entered the A & O-chain. With Handels- und Fruchthof Heilbronn GmbH the first regional warehouse was opened in northern Wurttemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. In 1964 the company expanded its range of products by opening a meat department. In 1968 the first Handelshof discount store
Discount store
A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances...
was opened in Backnang
Backnang
Backnang is a town in Germany in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, roughly 30 kilometers northeast of Stuttgart. Its population has increased greatly over the past century, from 7,650 in 1900 to 35,761 in 2005....
, and in 1977 at the same place a hypermarket of the same name was established. After the death of Joseph Schwarz in 1977 his son Dieter Schwarz took over the management of the company. In 1984 the first Kaufland hypermarket was opened in Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Stuttgart, and part of the district Heilbronn. As of 2004, Neckarsulm had 27,296 inhabitants....
, the town being the seat of the company's headquarters since 1972.
After the reunification of Germany the Kaufland chain expanded into the Eastern German states and opened numerous markets. The first East German Kaufland store was opened in Meissen
Meissen
Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...
in 1990, the first Kaufmarkt SB Warenhaus opened in 1994 in Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
. The first department store outside of Germany was established in 1998 in Kladno
Kladno
Kladno is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is located 25 km northwest of Prague. Kladno is the largest city of the region and holds a population together with its adjacent suburban areas of more than 110,000 people...
, Czech Republic. In subsequent years, the company established branches in Slovakia (since 2000), Croatia (2001), Poland (2001), Romania (2005) and Bulgaria (2006).
In 2006 and 2007 other store openings followed in Germany and Kaufland also took over shares of competitores. In February 2009 the corporation claimed to have 73,000 employees in Germany.
In December 2009 Kaufland announced the building of a new meat processing plant in Heiligenstadt
Heiligenstadt
Heiligenstadt may refer to several places:*Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Thuringia, Germany*Heiligenstadt i.OFr. , Bamberg , Bavaria, Germany*Heiligenstadt, Vienna, Austria*Heiligenstadt, part of Neuhaus in Kärnten, Carinthia, Austria...
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
for a total of €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
85 million until 2013. About 400 local employees will then deliver 45,000 tons of meat per year to around 600 stores of the corporation.
In January 2010 it was announced that Karl Lupus GmbH & Co. KG was cleared by antritrust authorities to sell their 12 stores of the famila Handels-Betriebe GmbH & Co. KG Rhein-Neckar and the Cash-&-Carry-Markt Lupus Food Service with 1,400 employees to Kaufland.
On 1 January 2010, the Kaufland group had purchased all five Schleckerland
Anton Schlecker
Anton Schlecker is a German businessman, founder and owner of the Schlecker drug store chain in Germany.He is married to Christa Schlecker and has two children, Lars Schlecker and Meike Schlecker, both active in the management of the Schlecker company.At 21 he acquired the degree "Meister" butcher...
drug stores in Ehingen
Ehingen
Ehingen is a town in the Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, situated on the left bank of the Danube, approx. 25 km southwest of Ulm and 67 km southeast of Stuttgart.-Statistics:...
, Geislingen
Geislingen
Geislingen can refer to:two towns in Baden-Württemberg, Germany:* Geislingen an der Steige, district of Göppingen.* Geislingen, Zollernalbkreis, Zollernalbkreis district....
, Tempe
Tempe
-Places:* Vale of Tempe, Greece* Tempe, Arizona, United States* Tempe, New South Wales, a suburb in Sydney, Australia* Lake Tempe, Indonesia* Tempe, Bloemfontein, South Africa, home of the 44 Parachute Regiment...
, Neu-Ulm
Neu-Ulm
Neu-Ulm is a town in Bavaria, capital of the Neu-Ulm district. Neighbouring towns include Ulm, Senden, Pfaffenhofen an der Roth, Holzheim, Nersingen and Elchingen. The population is 51,110 .-History:...
, Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen...
and all but the Neu-Ulm store had been converted to the Kaufland brand by then. The local Schleckerland was closed down because Kaufland was already present in Neu-Ulm.
From 2011, all Handelshof stores will gradually be converted to the Kaufland brand and will be partly rebuilt and enlarged.