Billionaire Aldi heir Berthold Albrecht dies at 58 Aldi was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht when they took over their mother's grocery store in 1946. They rapidly expanded to 300 shops but, in 1960, they split the company in two following a disagreement over whether they should sell cigarettes at tills. Aldi Nord operates shops in the north of Germany, while Aldi Süd covers the south of the country and operates all 421 stores in the UK. Berthold Albrecht was the son of Theo Albrecht, who retained the Aldi Nord half of the business. Sebastian Frericks, an analyst at Frankfurt-based Bankhaus Metzler, told Bloomberg: "This isn't going to change a lot at Aldi Nord. His brother Theo was closer to managing the business. Berthold had been sick for a while.