Beate Heister (née Albrecht; born 5 October 1951) is a German billionaire heiress. She is one of the two children of Karl Albrecht, who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. As of 2022, she was one of the five richest women in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Together with her brother Karl Albrecht Jr., as of 2020, she had a net worth of US$41.3 billion, putting them at the top of Forbes list of the richest Germans
Heister’s fortune is derived from her half stake in Aldi Sued, part of the German food retail chain. Aldi Sued had revenue of 72.8 billion euros ($86 billion) in 2021, according to retail consultants Edge by Ascential Retail Insight.
Heister controls Aldi Sued with her brother, Karl Jr., and her husband and oldest son, through Eichenau, Germany-based Siepmann trust, according to an interview with her late father Karl Albrecht in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in 2014.
The valuation of Aldi Sued is based on the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of two publicly traded peer companies: Carrefour SA and J Sainsbury PLC.
Carolin Kunsleben, a spokeswoman for Aldi Sued, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Personal life
Heister was born in 1951 in Essen and lives in Neuss, Germany. She is married to entrepreneur Peter Heister, who is related to the Werhahn family and was the former head of Aldi South. They have six children.
She is “notoriously reclusive”. In a 2014 feature article on the Albrecht family, Manager Magazin compared Beate to her father Karl Albrecht, saying that she resembled him “especially in her sometimes uncompromising hardness”
Milestones
- 1913 Grandmother Anna founds grocery shop in Essen, Germany.
- 1920 Father, Karl, born to Karl Sr. and Anna Albrecht.
- 1946 Albrecht brothers take over their mother’s grocery store in Essen.
- 1960 Supermarket chain Albrechts renamed Aldi and split into separate companies.
- 1971 Uncle Theo kidnapped. Family pays 7 million deutsche mark ransom.
- 1973 Father creates Siepmann trust to manage family wealth.
- 1976 Aldi Sued opens first store outside Europe in the U.S.
- 1994 Father becomes Aldi Sued chairman and steps down as CEO.
- 2010 Uncle Theo dies. His sons Berthold and Theo Jr. inherit Aldi Nord.
- 2014 Inherits half of Aldi Sued after father Karl Albrecht dies.
Business
Heister controls half of Aldi South, which operates more than 6,000 stores in southern Germany. She, her husband Peter, and their son Peter Max Heister, all sit on Aldi’s advisory board. Her son Christian sits on the board of directors. As of 2021, Heister remained active as a board member of the Siepmann Foundation, which takes its name from the maiden name of her paternal grandmother.
