Billionaire just arrived in Vietnam: From poor boy to supermarket tycoon

Rami Levy is one of the billionaires who recently came to Vietnam to attend the Binh Dinh Province Investment Promotion Conference 2024. He is considered a "supermarket tycoon" in Israel.

Billionaire Rami Levy. Screenshot

According to the Times of Israel, billionaire Rami Levy's Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing is one of Israel's largest discount supermarket chains. Rami Levy operates 52 stores - including three franchises - across the country and operates a 30,000-square-meter logistics center in the city of Modiin. The group employs about 8,000 people and has annual sales of about $1.68 billion. Other competitors have much larger chains, but Rami Levy, 69, has attracted a lot of attention for becoming a billionaire from a poor boy and running supermarket chains that offer discounts to customers. In addition to discounts, Levy's supermarket chain regularly offers special deals for Jewish holidays. Rami Levy grew up in the crowded Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Mahane Yehuda open market. Levy decided to open his first store after witnessing a store owner’s unpleasant attitude toward his grandmother. “I’ll get out of the army and open a store,” Levy thought. Levy’s grandfather owned a small warehouse a block away from the store owner, on Hashikma Street. In 1977, Levy cleaned, painted, and converted the warehouse into a grocery store. Levy attracted customers by retailing food at wholesale prices. After three months, Levy connected directly with companies that supplied the wholesalers and began buying directly from them, making a small profit and then expanding his chain. Levy has since founded an insurance company and a mobile phone provider, both of which bear his name. Below his corporate office, customers can also dine at Hashikma Pizza or Hashikma Burger. Levy said he would go into any industry “where I can do good for my customers, sell at low prices and make sure my customers get good service.” Shopkeepers on Hashikma Street, where Levy started, said he had not changed since the days they knew him as a friendly and generous grocer. “Levy was a good man,” said Aviezer Zaken, who runs a fish and poultry store. “We didn’t think he would become a billionaire. But he did.” Other shopkeepers said Levy never gave himself a break. “There was no free time. He worked 24 hours a day,” said Yakov Gazit, who used to own a Turkish restaurant on the corner of Hashikma Street, near Levy’s shop. Still, Gazit remembers one night years ago when he was stranded on the other side of Jerusalem with a flat tire and Levy came to his aid at 3 a.m. “You were in trouble, so I came to help you,” Gazit recalls Levy saying after he called for help. Rami Levy ranked 87th on Forbes’ 2022 list of Israel’s 100 richest people, with a net worth of $0.85 billion.

Laodong.vn

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