Aldi Nord has found a new CIO. According to Lebensmittel Zeitung, Oliver Tackmann, who played a key role in shaping DIY store franchisor Obi during his long career as it head of IT and logistics, is to become the discounter’s Chief Information Officer. Oliver Tackmann is returning to the retail industry on 1 July after a two-year stint in the insurance sector. Most recently, he was CIO at MSIG Insurance.
Aldi Nord recently made headlines due to significant problems with its switch of its SAP-based merchandise management to SAP S/4HANA. The regional go-live of the new solution in the Dutch region of Culemborg was disastrous and ended in massive gaps in shelf availability in stores. The Retail Optimiser reported. The failed launch of the discounter’s new IT landscape was likely due to poor consulting – specifically in the area of processes typical for discounters: the mapping of mixed case containers in merchandise management.
Sinanudin Omerhodzic, who was responsible for Aldi Nord’s new IT architecture as CIO, left the company shortly after the failed go-live in the Netherlands in July 2024. Since then, IT has been the responsibility of Sascha Leutner, who is Aldi Nord’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) for almost eight years, in addition to his existing duties. According to information from Lebensmittel Zeitung, he will continue to do so, with Oliver Tackmann reporting to him.
Key role in Obi’s processes
With Oliver Tackmann, Aldi Nord is now bringing a proven expert in retail technology on board. During his time at Obi, Tackmann served as Chief IT & Logistics Officer and played a key role in the development and implementation of the company’s processes and IT strategies. He left Obi unexpectedly in September 2022 after more than seven years with the company. As reported by Lebensmittel Zeitung, Oliver Tackmann left the DIY store chain after Sebastian Gundel was appointed CEO of the company.
In addition to and as part of the difficult mammoth project Beat@ATS to introduce SAP S/4HANA in conjunction with the already implemented automated forecasting and replenishment system from Relex, Aldi Nord is currently working on a whole series of fundamental technology decisions. According to information of The Retail Optimiser, a lot technology decisions are at the top of the discounter’s to-do list, which Oliver Tackmann will now have to tackle, particularly in the context of the planned introduction of self-checkouts and digital shelf labels.
Digital shelf labels are coming to Aldi Nord
As The Retail Optimiser learned, Aldi Nord is currently starting to introduce Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) in Germany and Belgium. However, the final decision on other countries and the selection of technology suppliers has not yet been made. Aldi Nord will probably also use more than one technology supplier for Germany.
The discounter’s sister company, Aldi Süd, has already completed the implementation of digital price labels worldwide. To the great surprise of industry experts, however, unlike Lidl, it has chosen a single supplier for all countries. While Lidl relies on technology from either VusionGroup or SoluM in each country, Aldi Süd has chosen Chinese supplier Hanshow as its sole supplier of electronic shelf labels, even though companies of this size do not normally make themselves dependent on a single hardware supplier.
Self-checkouts at the start
While Aldi Süd is already introducing self-checkouts from Diebold Nixdorf on a large scale, Aldi Nord is still in the testing phase. However, it is becoming apparent that Aldi Nord, like its competitor Lidl and unlike Aldi Süd, is relying on the use of standard POS hardware components and will also use its POS software platform from GK uniformly across all checkouts. The Retail Optimiser reported.
With regard to the extremely expensive renewal of the SAP-based merchandise management system, more and more voices in the Aldi world are calling for a joint approach by Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord to promote synergies between the companies with the same name but different distribution areas. Aldi Süd has also been investing huge sums in SAP projects for years.
