Aldi may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies. The individual groups were originally owned and managed jointly by the brothers. Karl Albrecht, who died in 2014, retained ownership of Aldi Süd with a personal wealth of €17.2 billion that made him the richest man in Germany. The co-owners of Aldi Nord, Berthold and Theo Albrecht Jr. came close behind at €16 billion. Dieter Schwarz, owner of Lidl and Kaufland came in third, with a fortune of €11.5 billion. Aldi started to expand internationally in 1967, when Aldi Süd acquired
Billa (supermarket) Billa (supermarket) BILLA () is an Austrian supermarket chain that operates throughout Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The company, which was founded by Karl Wlaschek in 1953, is currently owned by Germany's REWE Group. The chain's name is derived from a contraction of "BILliger LAden", German for 'cheap shop' Billa operates stores in these 6 European countries: Billa also had locations in Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania but all of those had since been sold to other supermarket chains. In 2002, all 14 Billa stores in Hungary were sold to Spar. In 2009, all 14 Billa stores in Poland were