The discounter Aldi Süd could start delivering fresh food in Germany next year.

In the United States, the supermarket chain is already trying to do this on a small scale, Scott Patton, Aldi USA's purchasing director, told Handelsblatt.

"We are now testing this with a small group of consumers and then want to gradually roll it out nationwide," Patton told the newspaper.

Jonas Jansen

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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The project is therefore still in an early stage and the company has not confirmed whether this test in America automatically means that there will also be a delivery of food for the home market in the future.

However, the plan can be used as a blueprint.

This is supported by the fact that the discounter has also advertised 50 positions for e-commerce specialists at its headquarters.

However, setting up delivery logistics is expensive.

It costs even more if the software is not set up by a partner but in the company.

We are talking about a high three-digit million amount.

In addition, the competition in food delivery is already strong - and the competition from Aldi from other supermarket chains has a good lead.

Rewe, for example, has also been doing online business for more than ten years.

The supermarket chain, which is organized as a cooperative, has been running its own delivery service for a number of years.

However, the company does not make any money from it.

Short distances to the supermarkets

Rewe boss Lionel Souque repeatedly emphasizes that he personally likes the offer that customers can make their purchases online but then pick them up themselves.

After all, the distances to supermarkets in Germany are shorter than almost anywhere else due to the great competition and the many suppliers.

In addition, the delivery to the customer is outsourced, which is by far the most expensive and complex part of this business model.

At the same time, Rewe is feeling the growing demand for such offers. In recent years, several express delivery services have been established that advertise that they can bring purchases to customers in 10 minutes.

The Rewe Group has invested in Flink, one of the largest suppliers that competes with competitors such as Gorillas or Knuspr.

Souque believes that Agile has the potential to become a market leader rather than gorillas.

There are also signs of consolidation because many of the start-ups financed with sums in the high millions are struggling.

Whoever emerges victorious in the end has a good chance of converting the previously loss-making business into profits.

Edeka takes a different approach, the grocery chain holds a good quarter of the Dutch company Picnic.

The Rhine-Ruhr Society in particular has been supporting its spread in Germany for several years.

In Oberhausen, for example, Picnic is currently building a new, automated logistics center right next to the distribution center of the food giant, which will serve a customer group of around 180,000 families with their weekly shopping from the end of 2024.

Picnic is investing around 150 million euros in the new building, i.e. primarily in robotics and logistics inside, Picnic will also rent the building from Edeka.

"The German food trade is not characterized by gigantic margins, but by great competition.

That's why you have to make the three areas in the value chain as efficient as possible,"

Of course, the discounter Aldi with its regional companies also has a tight network, but the competitors also rely on partners because they are often quicker to expand in their start-up culture.

Classic grocers haggle longer for prices per square meter than it takes for start-ups to set up 20 new shops in the largest German cities.

On the other hand, the young companies have also noticed why the established dealers are important.

Picnic buys the goods internationally together with Edeka and therefore benefits from the purchasing power of the food giant.

Aldi's fiercest competitor, Lidl, has not yet gotten into food deliveries.

Nevertheless, the discounter already generates billions in sales through its online shop - there the company sells goods beyond the traditional range of foods.