In the past few years, Lidl’s parent company Schwarz Group has been making some remarkable investments outside of its core business, i.e. retail. The Group owns waste management company Prezero, through which it controls the entire packaging recycling circuit, and which is expanding heavily. In addition, Schwarz bought a majority stake in IT security provider XM cyber, which protects its IT systems.
A few months ago, Lidl made headlines with the announcement that it had bought containerships. The newly created shipping company, Tailwind, has started operations and the first three ships are bringing goods from Asia to Europe. Reportedly, the ships are to bring loads to European ports every two weeks and the fleet is to be expanded. For Lidl, it is an attempt to control and secure more punctual arrival of products.
Last month, Schwarz Group expanded its own production facilities with the acquisition of a paper mill in Germany. The paper produced at the plant is recyclable and biodegradable. With the deal, the Group says that it wants to ensure the reliable supply of its retail divisions with environmentally friendly and ecologically sustainable paper. A few days later, Schwarz bought Germany’s largest private label pasta producer Erfurter Teigwaren, again to reliably supply its retail divisions.
The Schwarz Group’s production companies already comprised ice cream manufacturing, mineral water and soft drinks, chocolate, dried fruit and baked goods facilities. With these strategic investments in non-retail related assets, the group's ambition seems to be to control as many business operations as it can.