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
Dia (supermarket chain) 2000 to 2011, Dia was part of the Carrefour Group but following its spin-off it became independent and debuted in Madrid's IBEX 35 stock market on 2 January 2012. The Dia Group purchased the operation of Schlecker (including its 1,127 stores in Spain and 41 stores in Portugal, and four distribution centers) for 70.5 million Euros. In 2014, Dia sold the whole of its business in France to Carrefour for 600 million euros. Although the shops retain the Dia name and logo, Carrefour own-brand products are increasingly replacing Dia's. Dia (supermarket chain) Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación, S.A. (DIA) is a