Colruyt is a chain of

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

s, started at

Lembeek Lembeek is a village with a population of 7,256 in the municipality of Halle, Belgium, Halle, Belgium. Location South-west of Halle, it is close to the language border between the Flemish Region and Wallonia. The Castle of Lembeek was demolished ...

near Halle,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Colruyt carries the surname of the founder of the family business, the

Colruyt family The Colruyt family is a Belgian noble family, belonging to the wealthiest noble houses of Belgium. In three generation they managed to climb to the top of the Belgian economy. History The history starts in 1925 when Franz, a baker in Lembeek, op ...

still owns the company. Colruyt is part of

Colruyt Group Colruyt Group is a Belgium, Belgian Colruyt family, family-owned retail corporation that is managing the Colruyt (supermarket), Colruyt supermarkets and other subsidiaries such as OKay, Bio-Planet, DATS 24, DreamLand, DreamBaby, and more. Fou ...

, a Belgian multinational family business in wholesale distribution that evolved from the Colruyt supermarkets. It is competing with hard discounters such as

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

and

Lidl Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (; ) is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 11,000 stores across Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, whi ...

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

countries where it is a well established market leader. The current manager is

Jef Colruyt Jozef Maria Damiaan "Jef", Baron Colruyt (born 18 October 1958, Halle) is a Belgian businessman. In 1994 he succeeded his father Jo Colruyt as head of Colruyt, a company with more than 26,000 employees. With an estimated fortune of 2.521 billion e ...

. The company's retail trade division includes the direct supply of products to retail customers operating through brands Colruyt, OKay, Bio-Planet, DreamLand and ColliShop, among others. The company supplies to wholesalers and affiliated independent merchants in Belgium, France and Luxembourg. It also supplies fuels through DATS 24 filling stations in Belgium and France, provides printing and document management solutions (Druco/Mitto) and engineering activities (Intrion), and produces renewable energy (WE Power).

History

* 1925 –

Franz Colruyt François Jean Baptiste Marie "Franz" Colruyt (14 December 1901, Lembeek - 4 November 1958, Halle) is the founder of the Colruyt family business. Under his leadership, a business in colonial goods evolved into a wholesale business in dry food. Fa ...

, baker at Lembeek (near Halle) creates his own business in

colonial goods In economics, colonial goods are goods imported from European colonies, in particular coffee, tea, spices, rice, sugar, cocoa and chocolate, and tobacco. At a time when food and agriculture represented a relatively large proportion of overall econo ...

(coffee, spices, etc.). * 1950 – Creation of the "nv Ets Franz Colruyt", food wholesaler, which will over time become Colruyt Group * 1958 – Jo Colruyt and his brothers take over the management of the company GV * 1994 – Death of

Jo Colruyt Joseph Alphonse Marie Colruyt (2 August 1928, Uccle - 6 October 1994, Puget-Théniers) was a Belgian business owner. He was the son of Franz Colruyt, founder of the Colruyt company. Under his leadership, the company began the Colruyt retail chain ...

. His son

succeeds him.

References

External links

* {{retail-company-stub Supermarkets of Belgium Belgian brands Companies based in Flemish Brabant