1

Aldi: The Dark

Horse Discounter

HBA 1: Winter 2019

2
 Low Excellent
3
Quick turnover
Limited wages and
shopping
quantity benefits
trips
merchandise
offers
Transparent Employees Minimal Cart
pricing and cross staff deposit
Limited
volume for trained required to (customer
selection of Small
suppliers operate returns)
goods (1 type parking
Limited of pickle) store
lot
assortment
of private
label goods Goods on
(SKU)s High asset pallets
utilization (customer
stocks)
Minimize
Quality on costs
par with
branded
goods Low price
Rigorous strategy
Rely on
product word of
testing mouth
 4

Update: Aldi USA

• ~ 1800 locations. Continuing their slow expansion.

• Stated goal is 2500 from coast-to-coast by 2022 (2 years).
 5

Aldi: Takeaways

• Carving out a niche in an industry seemingly dominated by a key player is

possible
• Companies competing in the same sector with the ‘same’ strategy can create and
capture value in different ways
• A cost leadership strategy must focus on minimizing costs but how this is
achieved differs between companies.
• ‘Low cost’ does not mean minimizing all expenses Aldi pays employees
competitive wages and provides generous benefits
• Internal consistency between strategy and activity choices is critical to
create the biggest gap between cost to produce and a customer’s
willingness to pay
Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add
6

NEXT TIME
YU Ranch

We will focus on differentiation strategy.