Horst Paulmann
| Horst Paulmann | |
|---|---|
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Horst Paulmann in 2016
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| Born |
Horst Paulmann Kemna 22 March 1935 Kassel, Germany |
| Residence | Santiago de Chile, Chile |
| Nationality | German Chilean |
| Occupation | CEO and president, Cencosud |
| Known for | Retail tycoon |
| Net worth | $3.5 billion (December 2015) |
| Children | Manfred, Peter and Heike Paulmann Koepfer |
| Parent(s) | Hilde Kemna and Karl Werner Paulmann |
| Relatives | Jürgen Paulmann |
Horst Paulmann Kemna (born 22 March 1935) is a German-Chilean billionaire entrepreneur. He is founder, CEO and chairman of Cencosud, the largest retail chain in Chile and the third largest in Latin America. According to Forbes, his fortune is estimated at US$3.1 billion, and the second richest man in Chile.
In 1946, Horst Paulmann and his family, consisting of his parents and seven siblings, emigrated from Germany after the end of World War II. They crossed the Alps towards Italy, continued on to Argentina in 1948, and finally to Chile in 1950.
At the age of 13, Paulmann worked as a telephone operator in Buenos Aires and later worked making wooden toys. His family settled in the city of Temuco in the south of Chile, and his father got a position as a franchisee at Club Alemán and at Club de La Unión. In 1952, Paulmann's family bought a local restaurant called Las Brisas and they soon transformed it into a supermarket. Since then and after the death of his father, Horst and his brother Jürgen Paulmann built a series of supermarket chains, beginning with the first hypermarket, located on Av. Kennedy. It measured 4,000 square meters and would become the foundation of the holding company Cencosud.
He had three children with Helga Koepfer: Manfred, Peter and Heike.
Cencosud was founded by Horst Paulmann on 10 November 1978 when he assumed the role of CEO and chairman. Cencosud employs more than 150,000 people in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Peru, where it operates its supermarket chains (such as Jumbo, Santa Isabel, Disco, Vea, Gbarbosa, Prezunic, Bretas, Perini, Wong and Metro); department stores (such as París and Johnson's); home improvement stores (such as Easy and Blaisten); commercial centers and credit stores (with over 4.3 million credit cards issued).
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