The image of Dirk Rossmann is very different from the stereotypical image of a millionaire. No overseas villas, private jet or Rolls-Royce. He’s been driving the same car for years. He wears his favourite faded jeans and hates ties. He is happy to pay taxes. He leads a quiet family life.
Dirk Rossmann was born in 1946 in Hannover. His innate entrepreneurial spirit made itself known early on. He started earning his first money at the age of 12.
– My parents had a pharmacy. Prices were regulated by law then, I begged my mother to let us sell products 10 percent cheaper than others – he recalls in one of the interviews. – I cleaned out the home pantry to store supplies. Every Friday I would get on my bike with a basket and go around the neighbours on our street. I quickly reached more than a thousand marks in monthly revenue.
Friendly as a person, unfriendly as a competitor
He was 14 years old when he began learning the profession of a pharmacist. He didn't go to college because he wanted to take over the family business, plus he wasn't fond of school: - I didn't understand what the teachers wanted from me, and I didn't like getting up early. I know there has to be discipline, but I don't particularly like it.
He opened his first drugstore in 1972, when the German government liberalized the prices of chemicals and cosmetics. It was 200 square meters in size and was the first self-service drugstore in Germany. On the opening day, customers showed up in such large numbers that 20,000 marks were counted at the cash register instead of the expected 2-3,000.
Ten years later, Dirk Rossmann already had 100 drugstores in northern Germany.
Dirk Rossmann often emphasizes how important books are to him. – They are a bridge to the world - he says. He likes to quote the words of Schopenhauer, who said that people fail to achieve success because they give up too soon. - For me it is also important not to give up too early - he confesses. And these are not empty words.
I'm not stingy, but I don't need many things at all. Give me a good book, that's enough for me
From Risk, Through Perseverance, to Stability
Despite the obvious successes, the history of the family business has had its share of problems and dramatic moments. - I speculated on the stock market, I won, I lost, and the company suffered - Dirk Rossmann admits that he was not always sure whether he would be able to pay his employees' salaries. However, thanks to his own perseverance and the support of his wife, he managed to avert the crisis in the 1990s. A good move was the introduction of private labels for products, as well as entering the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland (the first drugstore was opened in Łódź in 1993).
Dirk Rossmann is not only an avid reader, but also an author of books. In 2019, he published his autobiography “...and then I climbed a tree”, and two years later, the climate-related thriller “The Ninth Arm of the Octopus”. He is a fan of tennis and skat game, and is also co-owner of the local football club in Hanover.
He has two sons. He handed over management of the company to the younger of them, Raoul, in 2021.
