Dirk Rossmann (born 1946) is a German

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman and author, founder of Rossmann, Germany's second-largest drug store chain. As of April 2024, his net worth was estimated at US$4.5 billion. In 1972, he established the first self-service drugstore in Germany.

Early life

Rossmann grew up in Germany. His parents, Bernhard Roßmann (1910–1958) and his wife Hilde, née Wilkens, ran a small drugstore on the outskirts of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

in the second generation. After his father's early death, his mother sold a lot of things to save the store. "We were destitute and lived in poor conditions", Dirk Roßmann said. At the age of twelve, he earned his first money by selling pharmacy goods ten per cent cheaper. At the same age, he also learned from his mother, at his own request, that his biological father was the neighbour, Theodor Kayser (1899-1968), the son of a German manufacturer from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and the godfather of Rossmann's older brother, Axel. After finishing secondary school, he completed vocational training as a druggist. From 1962 onwards he then worked in his parents' drugstore, while his brother, who was two years older, was able to study later.

Career

In 1972, he founded Rossmann, at the age of 25. In the 1980s, Roßmann sold 40 per cent of his company to Hannover Finanz, and its stake went to the drugstore chain of the Dutch Kruidvat Group (former owners: the De Rijcke family), which in turn was taken over in August 2004 by the A.S. Watson Group of the

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conglomerate

Hutchison Whampoa Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a dive ...

. In 2020, with 2,196 branches throughout Germany, the Rossmann company is number 2 in the German market according to DM. After the fall of the "Iron Curtain" in the early 1990s, Roßmann's company expanded into the Eastern European market, where he has operated over 1,000 shops since 2009. Europe-wide there are 4,088 shops, Germany-wide 2,196 shops (as of 2020). He now employs 33,400 people in Germany and around 56,200 people internationally. In Germany, Rossmann most recently generated a turnover of 7 billion euros (+ 5.1 per cent). Group-wide, turnover rose to 10 billion euros in 2019. The assets of Rossmann were estimated by Forbes to be around US$2.7 billion in 2016. In November 2019, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' estimated his net worth at US$4.1 billion.

Personal life

He is married to Alice Schardt-Rossmann, with two children, and lives in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, Germany. Both sons studied business administration, and work together with their father in the management of the company.

Bibliography

* ''"... dann bin ich auf den Baum geklettert!" Von Aufstieg, Mut und Wandel'' (2018) * ''Der neunte Arm des Oktopus'' (2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossmann, Dirk 1940s births Living people German billionaires German company founders 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople Businesspeople from Hanover German businesspeople in the healthcare industry Year of birth missing (living people)