nickshanagher

In 2004 Dieter Brandes leaked the secrets of Aldi’s success in his book, Bare Essentials , that is now available on Amazon for an amazing £196.90 a copy (it goes up and down) or maybe in an e-book format for a fraction of that price. (There is talk of a new English edition soon.) Don’t buy the book because you want to emulate Aldi as it is too late for that. But do make sure you read it if you want to be a better retailer. This is every bit as good as Sam Walton’s Made in America. Brandes was a top manager with Aldi for 14 years and marvels at how this secretive company’s simple formula was so widely misunderstood by competitors. The formula for success was a surprise for its founders, too. But Karl and Theo Albecht were astute business people who quickly recognised how the money was made and then kept the discipline. Put simply, the secret to making money is to stock a tight core range and sell lots of every product. While Walmart sells 100,000 items, its average turnover per ...