Karl Albrecht in Germany, and the fourth-richest in Europe. Karl Albrecht Karl Hans Albrecht (; 20 February 1920 – 16 July 2014) was a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He was for many years the richest person in Germany. In February 2014, he was ranked the 21st-richest person in the world by Hurun Report. Karl and Theo Albrecht were born and raised in a Catholic family in modest circumstances in Essen, Germany. Their father, Karl Sr, was employed as a miner and later as a baker's assistant. Their mother Anna, née Siepmann, had a
Dirk (supermarket) Dirk (supermarket) Dirk, formerly Dirk van den Broek, is a supermarket chain that operates 110 stores in the Netherlands. The original business was established in 1942 by Dirk van den Broek as a milk store in Amsterdam. In 1948 it was converted into a self-service market. The first supermarket was opened in 1953, also in Amsterdam. In 1972 Dirk started the Digros formule located in Katwijk, in 1973 he bought the supermarkets from Bas van der Heijden which were located around Rotterdam. In 2009 the company of Dirk van den Broek merged with Dirk Kat's DekaMarkt into the Detailresult Groep.