BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Theo Albrecht, Germany's second richest person and co-founder of the discount supermarket chain Aldi has died, his company said Wednesday. Albrecht was 88.
Albrecht died after a long illness on Saturday in his home city of Essen in western Germany, the company said.
Theo and his elder brother Karl Albrecht opened their first Aldi stores in the 1960s. The supermarket chain now has more than 4,000 outlets in Germany and has spread into nearly 20 countries with annual sales of 50 billion euros.
The two brothers were the wealthiest people in Germany, according to the latest list by Manager Magazine. The magazine reported that Karl owns a fortune of 17.35 billion euros (22.56 billion U.S. dollars) while Theo, who this year was ranked as the world's 31st richest person by Forbes magazine, has 16.75 billion euros (21.78 billion U.S. dollars).
However, both Karl and Theo lead very low profile lives. Theo's last public appearance dates from 1971 when he was kidnapped for 17 days and then released for a ransom of seven million deutschmarks (about 3.5 million euros or 4.6 million U.S. dollars).
