As a former Area Manager with ALDI, I would strongly discourage anyone with a university degree from going for the Area Manager role with ALDI. The typical people you will be working with in these roles are obnoxious, aggressive and over confident. This is the ALDI type they are after. They only want people with uni degrees because it shows you can achieve something. You won’t be using anything you’ve learnt at uni, so it seems such a waste of all that study. The role is basically running their supermarkets, a job which people without a uni degree could also manage easily.
They will work you to the bone for 2-3 years and then replace you with new grads. There are very limited opportunities to progress above Area Manager, as the number of Director roles is limited and everyone is competing for them, and the existing Directors won’t leave their current roles so they don’t come up often.
The progression from Area Manager is to Store Operations Director, Buying Director, Property Director or Warehouse Director. Given the existing directors have nowhere else to go, besides Managing Director, there are limited opportunities for progression. Each region can only have 1 or 2 Store Operations Directors etc., there is only 1 Managing Director. So the number of people in the Director roles is small.
Most people working for ALDI develop very specific skills in overseeing supermarkets, and there are limited opportunities to move into other retail companies with the ALDI experience. Other retailers would rather promote their existing staff into management, and so if you leave the company you will find it difficult to gain employment elsewhere with the ALDI background as your experience.
I would strongly discourage anyone from pursuing an opportunity with them, as they are a ruthless company and will use you until they can replace you. ALDI only operates for the profit of the German owners. ALDI don’t hesitate to replace people they don’t like, and their staff turnover is very high.
Uni graduates would be better advised to work in roles where they can utilize the degree they’ve studied, which in the long term will give them a lot more opportunities than ALDI can offer. Whilst other companies offer a lower starting salary for graduates, you will quickly catch up, and in the long term be in a much better position with a career that actually makes you attractive to many firms.
Whilst the ALDI starting salary is high, it doesn’t go up much further once you are in the company. It is a bait to attract lots of applicants to apply, and then you get stuck. I really regret working for ALDI and would have been better off starting off in a career oriented firm where I was using my uni degree.