Outspoken Australian businessman Dick Smith has accused the German owners of the Aldi supermarket chain of failing to allow Australian workers and farmers share the wealth from its successful expansion and being too secretive.

In an open letter to Karl Albrecht and Beate Heister on Wednesday, the founder of the Dick Smith electronics chain heaps praise on the supermarket’s successful expansion in Australia, where it has eaten into the market share of Coles and Woolworths with its no-frills product range.



But the letter contains several thinly veiled attacks on the way the company is run and ends with a plea to the owners – the children of Aldi’s cofounder – to come to Australia and explain their strategy.

The “Aldi plan”, Smith claims, is about “sharing the wealth less”. It might have helped profitability, he says, but the alleged policy of restricting its product range to keep a limit on staff numbers means it is denying young Australians career opportunities.

“When will enough be enough?” asks the former Australian of the year.

Citing high youth unemployment, he continues: “Your formula of employing less staff per dollar turnover compared to the typical Australian-owned supermarkets will ultimately mean less Australians employed.”

He also claims that Aldi, which has 500 stores in Australia compared to Coles’ 800 and Woolworths’ 900-plus, stocks too many products sourced overseas and that is hurting Australian farmers. Argentinian peanut butter is mentioned, for example. Smith has his own line of Australian-made food products, including peanut butter.

And the company’s private ownership, which has made the founding family a US$30bn fortune, is also bad for Australians, Smith says, because they can’t buy stocks in Aldi and therefore share in its success.

“Your formula is extremely astute,” he writes. “You are privately owned, so it is not possible for Australians to share in the wealth creation of your company, and you also don’t have the costs of publicly listing on the stock exchange which would result in the employment of many additional Australians.”

Finally he accuses the owners of being too secretive – “our tradition here is one of openness” – and failing to share their wealth directly through philanthropy.

“From what I can understand, all the extraordinary wealth goes to both of you and your family members. You are not even known as philanthropists, or known as having signed the Bill Gates Giving Pledge.”

Aldi said in a statement that it strove to “provide our customers with high quality products at affordable prices. Losing focus of this purpose just adds costs”. It added that it started with two stores 17 years ago and now employed more than 11,500 people.