When Rami Levy, a severe dyslexic who failed out of school, took over his grandfather’s store in Jerusalem’s famous Machane Yehuda Market, no one could have imagined that 36 years later he would be worth an estimated $500 million. Rami’s chain of supermarkets, Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing 2006 Ltd., operates by offering the cheapest prices around Israel.
When the company went public in 2007, Rami caught the attention of industry experts after opening a large store in Haifa forcing nearby supermarket branches to significantly lower their prices. The company’s stock increased by more than 400 percent, which attracted international attention. This past March, Michael Dell’s investment company, MSD Capital LP, invested 900 million shekels (more than $250 million) into the supermarket chain and wholesale distribution company, acquiring a total of 6.1 percent of the business and making Rami Levy’s stores their first Israeli investment.
Since taking his company public, Rami has acquired factories, founded a cellular telecom branch, invested in Israeli and Bulgarian real estate and started an insurance business.
