Lidl’s chief executive Karl-Heinz Holland and head of buying and marketing Dawid Jaschok have both left the company due to “differing views” over the future strategy of the discount retailer.
In a statement Lidl blamed “unbridgeable” differences but did not go into further detail on what those strategic differences were. No replacements have yet been named.
Holland has been at Lidl for 23 years, taking over as boss five years ago following a scandal in which the retailer was alleged to have spied on staff. Lidl now has 10,000 stores across Europe and was considering following its rival Aldi into the US market.
Lidl started out with a no-frills approach to retail but recently has focused on more luxury items as its market share in its home German market declined.
That focus in the UK, mirrored in its marketing campaigns, has helped Lidl increase its share of the UK grocery market to 3.2 per cent for the 12 weeks to 2 March 2014, up from 2.8 per cent a year ago. Together with Aldi, it now accounts for a record 7.5 per cent of the market.
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