🌍 Aldi Süd CEO Christoph Schwaiger on Global Grocery Growth | CGF 2025
Live from the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at the Consumer Goods Forum 2025 in Amsterdam, Aldi Süd CEO Christoph Schwaiger shares how one of the world’s most influential grocers is leaning into AI and sustainability to better serve global consumers. He reflects on Aldi’s roots in discount grocery and its mission to make sustainability affordable (1:00), why CGF is a vital forum for collaborative innovation (2:45), and how banana and cashew supply chain changes are reshaping ethical sourcing (4:30). Christoph also discusses how to inspire industry-wide cooperation (5:50), the dual power of AI and sustainability as Aldi’s growth levers (7:00), and the rising importance of cybersecurity—especially at the human level (8:30).
#aldisüd #CGF2025 #retailinnovation #grocerytech #sustainability #aiinretail #cybersecurity #DiscountRetail #omnitalkretail
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Transcript
Welcome back, everyone.
Speaker A:This is omnitalk Retail coming to you live from the Fusion Group booth at the Consumer Goods Forum.
Speaker A:We have a great, great guest today.
Speaker A:And first I'll introduce myself.
Speaker A:I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker A:For those of you joining us for the first time of this coverage, joining us today is Christoph Schweiger, the CEO with Aldisud.
Speaker C:Well, thanks very much for having me.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker C:Great to be here.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:We were just saying it's so fun to interview CEOs here because it feels like you all have such great personalities.
Speaker A:You're so willing to talk.
Speaker A:We'd want to have a beer with you, maybe.
Speaker C:Well, thank you very much.
Speaker C:And I really hope I'm not going to become the odd exception when it comes to your interviews.
Speaker B:I do too set you up.
Speaker B:Set you up for hopefully nothing but success.
Speaker B:I hope we set you up for nothing but success.
Speaker B:All right, so let's start with Aldi Suits.
Speaker B:So explain to our audience, especially back home in the U.S.
Speaker B:what is it?
Speaker B:And also your background too, if you don't mind.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:Let's start with the company first.
Speaker C:Aldi Suit is a discount grocery retailer.
Speaker C:We operate in 11 markets.
Speaker C:One of them is the US which is a really big business for us.
Speaker C: We've been in the US since: Speaker C:So for quite a long time.
Speaker C:And we operate 2,300 stores now throughout the US and globally.
Speaker C:We have a footprint of roughly 8,000 stores spanning basically all of Europe, Australia.
Speaker C:We've got business in China as Well and the U.S.
Speaker C: grocery retailing back in the: Speaker C:And to my background, CEO in the holding, which is based in Austria, and I take care of all buying agendas, all supply chain agendas, and all sustainability agendas globally for our business.
Speaker C:And I also spearhead our China business.
Speaker C:That's me.
Speaker A:Just a couple of things that fall under your purview.
Speaker C:Otherwise it would be boring, right?
Speaker C:Wouldn't it be?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You would have nothing to do.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:What would I do all day?
Speaker B:No, nothing.
Speaker A:Well, Christoph, I'm curious.
Speaker A:You know, we're here at CGF as the person who controls supply chain sustainability, all the things that fall under your leadership, what kind of topics right now are really coming to the fore for you here at the show?
Speaker C:The first motivation, being completely honest with you, was really to engage with the peers and also to exchange on sustainability.
Speaker C:You Know, everybody talks about sustainability these days.
Speaker C:It's a little bit of a buzzword, but you actually need to live up to it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And we at the Aldi South Group, we've really embedded sustainability in our commercial strategy as well, which was one of the speeches I have given last or yesterday afternoon.
Speaker C:And really, in the exchange with the leaders, with the fellow panelists, it's really inspirational to see how they approach the similar challenges that we all have in all of our business, because talking about it is one thing, but really embedding it into business, making a business case out of it and actually extrapolating that to growth, this is where the challenge and the beauty can come in.
Speaker C:And for this, the CGF is a fantastic forum to exchange, to learn and also to gain some inspiration and provide a little bit of inspiration to others.
Speaker A:Yeah, tell me.
Speaker A:I'm curious to get some insight, some insight, insight into what those conversations are like between you and your peers.
Speaker A:Do you just walk up to each other and you're like, man AI.
Speaker A:Or is there pleasantries first?
Speaker A:Or like, how does it, how does it go?
Speaker C:Well, it always depends a little bit on the culture or exactly who the person is.
Speaker C:So people you've met before, it is actually a quite straightforward conversation.
Speaker C:If you haven't met the person before, it takes a little bit more warming.
Speaker A:Up before you want them to tell you their inner secrets.
Speaker C:But another big part is in general, when it comes to those big meetings, a little bit of meeting planning.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So you engage with people before, over email, over the messages.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:And then you have your meetings and then it is, I'm not going to say transactional, but you get to the point.
Speaker A:Quite straight.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:And it's quite an open forum here as well, which is something that I really appreciate.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm sure nobody really shares the secret sauce, I would guess, but it is a very open forum where you can gain a lot of inspiration.
Speaker C:So yesterday, if you want to have an example, I was talking about our banana sourcing practices.
Speaker C:I'm not going to spoil it here for too long, but I think we really changed our practices.
Speaker C:I spoke about cashew nut sourcing practices as well.
Speaker A:Cast your nut.
Speaker C:Cashew nuts.
Speaker A:Oh, cashew nuts.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:I was like, what is that a new nut?
Speaker C:I have to try some little nuts.
Speaker C:And we've changed the supply chains and how we work on that, and that was really great to see.
Speaker C:And then one of my fellow panelists, she was in dairy production, she gave me a lot of inspiration of how they integrate financial KPIs and their sustainability work.
Speaker A:So that's cool.
Speaker C:It's good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All over the board.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:So as much as I'd like to peel back and understand the banana sourcing strategy a little bit more there, my friend, I do want to ask you something.
Speaker B:We had someone on earlier today and she was saying that long term success is dependent upon cooperation across the industry.
Speaker B:So one, do you agree with that?
Speaker B:And well, let's start there.
Speaker B:Do you agree with that statement?
Speaker B:First of all, that long term success requires collaboration across the industry.
Speaker C:There is definitely a lot of beauty in that when it comes to industry wide standards.
Speaker C:That brings the cost down for everyone.
Speaker C:That shapes a level playing field and especially when you look at it from a sustainability lens.
Speaker C:I do agree.
Speaker B:You do?
Speaker B:I would assume so.
Speaker C:There might be the exception, but especially from a sustainability lens, definitely.
Speaker B:Generally speaking.
Speaker B:Okay, so if that is the case, then how does one inspire cooperation?
Speaker B:What have you found works?
Speaker B:What have you found that's successful?
Speaker B:What are actions that you've taken that you can share with our audience to that end?
Speaker C:So I was part of a session last afternoon where it was about data mining from our suppliers in order to fulfill the regulatory demands that we have.
Speaker C:That's a good starting point, especially here in Europe.
Speaker C:So it might not be the most beloved topic that you might have.
Speaker C:But the point is quite simple.
Speaker C:We all mine data quite differently from our suppliers, which is an additional on cost for the suppliers.
Speaker C:But at the end of the day, the legislation talking about European legislation is the same for everyone.
Speaker C:So if we find a way, how we do it in a more streamlined, more straightforward way, that brings the cost down for everyone, is actually good for everyone.
Speaker C:So that would be a practical example.
Speaker B:And I hear about that same sort of thing in the States.
Speaker B:Why is that so hard for everyone to get on board with?
Speaker B:Because it sounds so intuitive in a lot of ways.
Speaker B:Or is it easy to get everyone on board with that?
Speaker C:I would say it is perhaps not a first, but a second for all of us because historically we didn't do it that much.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:The muscle memory is not there exactly.
Speaker C:Look, we all work in a competitive environment.
Speaker C:I think that's just what it is.
Speaker C:But that's exactly the power of getting here together at the cgf to have this forum as a facilitation.
Speaker C:Because when you're in there, as you rightly say, it all seems quite like a no brainer.
Speaker C:But somebody needs to start the conversation.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Somebody has a lead.
Speaker C:Exactly right.
Speaker B:Okay, got it.
Speaker A:So what's ahead for you right now?
Speaker A:Christophe, what are you excited about?
Speaker A:Both from an operations perspective at Aldi Suit, and then also from what you're gonna be bringing to your customers in the next couple of years.
Speaker C:So, first of all, there was a lot of inspiration over the last 36 hours that I've been here, and I really need to work through, and I need to digress to that.
Speaker C:But the point is quite simple.
Speaker C:One of the big takeaways is here that there is two main developments, and the one goes into the sphere of artificial intelligence, which is basically a productivity enhancer for all of us.
Speaker A:Right, Right.
Speaker C:The same goes for the Aldi Suit Group, where it is a tool for us in order to ensure that we can, in the future, offer the best quality at the very best price in the market.
Speaker C:But then there is another component coming in, and that is from the sustainability angle.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:We at the Aldi Suit Group believe that customers shouldn't have to choose between something expensive that is good from a sustainability point of view or not affordable.
Speaker C:So our quest, if you will, is that we make sustainability affordable for our customers.
Speaker C:And this is, I think, what they can expect going forward from us with the efficiency gains we can get in from all the tech support or the tech enablement.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:We foresee.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Using the money that you're saving, resources that you're saving to put towards lowering prices, which ultimately is driving where especially today's consumers are choosing to shop.
Speaker C:That's a perfect summary.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker B:So before I let you go too, one of the topics that we were just talking about with someone else was around cybersecurity, especially with all the activity over here in Europe of late, and then also some of it coming overseas into the U.S.
Speaker B:how has your job changed in terms of cybersecurity and the focus you've had to put on it over the last few years?
Speaker C:I can give you my.
Speaker C:To give you a really proper answer, what it means for our business, I would have to check in with our Chief Information Officer.
Speaker C:But for me, from a personal side, what I do see is there is many, many more scam attacks that are coming through all the different channels.
Speaker C:And that means managing passwords, managing logins.
Speaker C:That was not as important historically.
Speaker C:That's a really big thing, because I think the systems per se, that we, at least in our business, have are rather on the secure side.
Speaker C:But it's that last human component that you have in which basically is a door that can be opened quite easily.
Speaker C:So this is what I already feel, and I do feel that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to ensure that.
Speaker C:That we can keep the operation safe.
Speaker B:So it's something you guys are keenly focused on, I would imagine.
Speaker C:Yeah, we got that on our list.
Speaker B:Especially the human side of it.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Education.
Speaker B:All right, well, thank you so much.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker B:It was an absolute pleasure.
Speaker C:Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:Lived up to the hype, my friend.
Speaker B:I think you lived up to the hype.
Speaker C:Hope so.
Speaker C:Let's see what the audience thinks about it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:We'll let them decide.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:They need to decide.
Speaker B:Gotta follow the customers.
Speaker A:They'll vote up or down.
Speaker B:Vote up or down?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:All right, well, thank you again to Christoph, the CEO of a CEO with Aldi Sued.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining us.
Speaker B:Thanks to the Fusion Group for making all of our coverage from the Consumer Goods Forum in Amsterdam possible.
Speaker B:And until next time, and be careful out there.
