Next evolutionary step: Schwarz Digits sharpens its profile and focuses the organization on its core topics

• Schwarz Digits is the umbrella brand. This includes corporate IT and external products in the areas of Cloud, Cyber Security, Data & AI, Communication and Workspace.
• Investments in Aleph Alpha and Wire, as well as joint product development with SAP, Google, ServiceNow and Salesforce, among others, form a comprehensive portfolio on the market with the solutions developed in-house.
• Following successful development, Schwarz Digits hands over the Kaufland Marketplace, the Lidl Onlineshop and the retail media business to Lidl and Kaufland.
• The IT teams in Bulgaria, Romania and Spain move closer to Schwarz Digits and support the competition for the best brains in Europe. In future, Schwarz Digits will operate under a single employer brand.
   

Two and a half years after being founded as a separate division within the companies of Schwarz Group, Schwarz Digits is consistently aligning its structure with the corporate strategy. In future, Schwarz Digits will present itself with a uniform brand image: Schwarz Digits will act as an umbrella brand under which all internal units, product brands, partnerships and strategic investments are brought together.

Full focus on digital sovereignty for yourself, the economy and the public sector
At its core is a consistent focus on digital sovereignty - for the companies of Schwarz Group and the external market.

"Digital sovereignty is absolutely essential for the survival of any organization," says Christian Müller, Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits. "Anyone who is unilaterally dependent on others in the digital world is also dependent on the goodwill of others when it comes to value creation."

"Digital dependencies mean we lose control of our knowledge to companies outside the EU," says Rolf Schumann, Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits. "This knowledge in the form of data is the fuel for artificial intelligence. With our data, we are also losing the basis of our prosperity."

Extensive portfolio: Own solutions, investments, partnerships
In order to strengthen Germany and Europe as a business location, Schwarz Digits develops competitive solutions itself, makes targeted investments in promising young companies and enters into partnerships on an equal footing. The foundation for digitally sovereign IT solutions is the self-developed and operated cloud, which is still on the market under the product name STACKIT. Schwarz Digits is investing 11 billion euros in a data center in Lübbenau to expand this, among other things.

In addition to sovereignty, cyber security is a central pillar at Schwarz Digits. Schwarz Digits has strong internal cyber security units to ensure the security of the companies of Schwarz Group. Since November 2021, they have also been using XM Cyber's hybrid cloud cyber security solutions, which they also offer on the external market.

Investments in the sovereign AI company Aleph Alpha and the provider of secure communication platforms Wire enable co-development in the diverse application areas in the companies of Schwarz Group themselves. Joint development and the resulting joint products are also the focus of Schwarz Digits' extensive partnerships, including SAP, Google, ServiceNow, Salesforce and SentinelOne.

Target markets for the extensive product range include the public sector, retail, healthcare, the manufacturing industry, non-profit organizations and church organizations.

Incubator: Transfer of Kaufland marketplace, Lidl online store and retail media business to Lidl and Kaufland
Schwarz Digits is also an incubator for digital business models in the companies of Schwarz Group. Once a business model has reached a high level of maturity, it is examined together with the other divisions whether it makes sense to transfer the business model to the division's responsibility. The aim is always to accelerate scaling, reduce interfaces and improve processes for everyone.

The companies of Schwarz Group have two e-commerce formats: the Kaufland Marketplace and the Lidl Onlineshop. As one of Europe's largest online platforms, the Kaufland Marketplace is an important part of the brand. Programs such as the Kaufland app and the Kaufland Card Xtra link the analogue and digital worlds and create a seamless shopping experience for customers. More than 13,000 international retailers offer over 45 million products on the platform. The marketplace is available in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 2021, the marketplace was acquired by real and promptly rebranded from real.de to Kaufland e-commerce. This was followed by consistent expansion.

"We have now reached a size that is impressive by international standards," says Gerald Schönbucher, CEO of Kaufland e-commerce. "The logical next step for further scaling and the optimal integration of bricks-and-mortar retail and e-commerce is to transfer responsibility from Schwarz Digits to the Kaufland organization."

Operational responsibility for the Lidl Onlineshop has already been gradually transferred to the Lidl retail division over the past few years as an essential pillar of Lidl's omnichannel strategy.

Operational responsibility for the retail media business, formerly known as Schwarz Media, was also recently transferred to the retail divisions. Those responsible there are continuing to expand the range of products and services in the retail media sector.

Attractive employer with excellent locations in Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and Romania
Schwarz Digits continues to gain in attractiveness as an employer. This is partly due to the wide range of opportunities for newcomers and experienced professionals to help shape future-oriented technologies. The security that Schwarz Digits offers through its integration into the companies of Schwarz Group also appeals to applicants. A new, attractive location for Schwarz Digits is currently being built in Bad Friedrichshall.

Nevertheless, competition for the best applicants in the IT sector is fierce. To help potential applicants better understand the IT and digital divisions, Schwarz Digits will in future operate under a single employer brand.

In addition, the IT excellence locations in Spain, Bulgaria and Romania, which have been growing for several years, are moving closer to the umbrella brand as Schwarz Digits locations.

Embedded in a strong ecosystem
Schwarz Digits is a division of Schwarz Group - alongside Lidl, Kaufland, Schwarz Produktion and PreZero. The IT and digital powerhouse benefits from the ecosystem of the companies of Schwarz Group on two levels: IT specialists develop solutions specifically for the real operations of different customers in various sectors - for retail, extensive production and environmental service providers. In doing so, they work with an enormous amount of data and with a direct impact on the business models.

In addition to the strength of the companies of Schwarz Group, Schwarz Digits benefits from a comprehensive education and research ecosystem: the Bildungscampus (education campus) brings together facilities from DHBW, TU Munich, ETH Zurich, Programming School 42, the start-up forge Campus Founders, as well as Ferdinand Steinbeis, Fraunhofer and Max Planck Institutes. In addition, the IPAI is a unique platform for research and application of artificial intelligence.