Christian Müller becomes sole head of Schwarz Digits

Christian Müller has taken over as the sole head of Schwarz Digits, the digital arm of the Schwarz Group, which operates retail giants Lidl and Kaufland. This transition follows the departure of Rolf Schumann, who had shared leadership responsibilities with Müller.

Schumann leaves the company after seven years, with the company stating the separation is "by mutual agreement." He joined in 2019 as Chief Digital Officer and was appointed to the board in early 2020. Together with Müller, who was then Chief Information Officer, they formed a dual leadership tasked with the company's digitalization.

During their tenure, Müller and Schumann launched customer loyalty programs like Lidl Plus and Kaufland Card, now used by over 100 million people. Schwarz Digits has been expanding its operations, positioning itself as a European competitor to cloud market leaders such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Müller previously expressed the ambition for the company to become a "hyperscaler," a term for cloud providers offering extensive data storage and computing power.

The Schwarz Group is making a significant investment of 11 billion euros in a new data center located in Lübbenau, Brandenburg. This marks the largest single investment in the company's history. The facility will process the group's internal data from supply chain, ordering, payment, and loyalty programs, and will also offer storage and computing services to external clients. Partnerships have already been established with entities like the Baden-Württemberg police and the Federal Employment Agency.