Obituary: Theo Albrecht

ESSEN, Germany — Services were held here last week for Theo Albrecht, one of the two reclusive scions of the Aldi grocery chain, according to reports. He was 88. Albrecht, who also owned Trader Joe's, was a partner in the global Aldi grocery-chain empire with his brother, Karl. Both lived in near-isolation, which some reports attributed to Theo Albrecht's kidnapping in 1971. The two brothers launched the business in 1946 in a store in Germany that had been run by their parents. They shortened the name of the company from Albrecht Discount to Aldi, and expanded their no-frills, hard-discount concept before splitting up the business between them in 1960. Karl Albrecht took control of stores operating in southern Germany (Aldi Sud) while Theo Albrecht took over the northern Germany sites (Aldi Nord). Together the two, which operate as separate companies using different logos, now have 9,436 stores in 18 countries, generating annual revenues of $68.7 billion, according to SN's Top 25 Global Retailers report, complied by Planet Retail.