<P> When the brothers split the company in 1960 over a dispute whether they should sell cigarettes, they owned 300 shops with a cash flow of DM 90 million yearly . In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi--short for Albrecht - Diskont . Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966, although both divisions' names may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> Aldi started to expand internationally in 1967, when Aldi Süd acquired the grocery chain Hofer in Austria; Aldi Nord opened its first stores abroad in the Netherlands in 1973, and other countries followed . In 1976, Aldi opened its first store in the United States in Iowa, and, in 1979, Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joes . After German reunification and the fall of the Iron Curtain, Aldi experienced a rapid expansion . The brothers retired as CEOs in 1993; control of the companies was placed in the hands of private family foundations, the Siepmann Foundation (Aldi Süd) and the Markus Foundation (Aldi Nord, Trader Joe's). </P> <P> The Aldi Nord group currently consists of 35 independent regional branches with approximately 2,500 stores . Aldi Süd is made up of 31 companies with 1,600 stores . The border between their territories is commonly known as" Aldi - Äquator" (literally: Aldi equator) and runs from the Rhine via Mülheim an der Ruhr, Wermelskirchen, Marburg, Siegen, and Gießen east to just north of Fulda . </P>

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