The new headquarters of "Lidl", which is set to open on July 21, resembles the headquarters of Amazon, Apple or Google - a glass-covered complex for 3,500 employees, with a pond in the center. The complex is located in Bad Friedrichshall - a small town in southern Germany, not far from Heilbronn, the hometown of Germany's richest man, Dieter Schwarz. It was there that the "Lidl" empire began, which today employs over 600,000 people.
Its pillars are the "Lidl" and Kaufland supermarkets, but the company also operates in a number of other areas - food production, waste collection, recycling, and now digitalization. The turnover of the „Schwarz" group last year was 185 billion euros - more than that of „Mercedes" or „Bayer".
The new ambitions of the „Schwarz" group
The concern now intends to expand the scope of its activities even further - offering cloud data storage and security solutions for companies and administrative units. The idea is that in this way Germany and Europe will take their rightful place and no longer depend on technologies from the USA or China.
And the company is already recording successes - orders are pouring in one after another. Among the clients and partners are the government of the Netherlands, German ministries and the German Football Association.
There is no word on the price of the new company headquarters, but it is clear that its goal is to retain talents in the IT sector and probably attract new ones. The message is: why go to the expensive Silicon Valley when you can work for the future in southern Germany?
Heilbronn as a science center
Billionaire Dieter Schwarz is aware that success only works with people, talent and education. His foundation, established in 1999 in Heilbronn, works in the fields of education, science, research and entrepreneurship. Currently, the foundation is training about 8,000 students, and the idea is to increase the number to many more.
Heilbronn is also home to “Experimenta" - the largest science center in Germany, according to the company's own data. Visitors to the center have the opportunity to learn in detail about artificial intelligence and technology, which is why it is a real tourist magnet.
The city's mayor, Harry Mergel, told DW that thanks to the Schwarz Group and the Heilbronn Foundation, Heilbronn is on its way to becoming a science center. Previously called, not without irony, Heilbronx, the city now has the highest purchasing power in Germany, according to some rankings.
"We are here to stay"
It takes just 15 minutes by car from Heilbronn to the company's new headquarters. "The region will soon become the largest AI center in Germany and Europe," Bernd Wagner, head of cloud operations, tells DW with conviction.
But will the company really be able to compete with the technology giants? Amazon's turnover in the cloud business, for example, was $135 billion last year. And "Schwarz" only achieved a turnover of 2.2 billion euros with all its activities.
"We are here to stay," emphasizes Bernd Wagner. The market will provide opportunities. Germany and Europe urgently need independent IT solutions.
Wagner's call for digital independence sounds a bit like a PR strategy. But Dieter Schwarz has long proven that he has enough patience and flair. The "Schwarz" group is number one in Europe in retail and fourth in the world. And it is quite possible that its new technological ambitions will make sense.
Author: Nick Martin