Samuel Klein (born 15 November 1923 in Zaklików, Poland) is a businessman who founded the Casas Bahia string of department stores in Brazil, building them into the top retailer in the country. This along with his tendency to use massive warehouses for his goods, including the largest single warehouse in South America, led him to be known in the 1990s as the "Sam Walton of Brazil".[1]
Contents |
Klein worked as a joiner at the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland in World War II, when he was taken to the Maidanek concentration camp along with his father. His mother and siblings went to Treblinka.[2] He was later transported to Auschwitz in 1944. He escaped from the soldiers on July 22; in his own words, "I didn't know where I was going, but I was certain to get far from the group." He spent the night in the fields, where some Christian Polish fugitives helped him flee. He managed to return to his old house, which was ruined, and worked on a small farm in the area in exchange for food.
After the war, he met his sister Sezia and brother Solomon (who live today in New York). The Klein brothers went to Germany, and were able to find their father alive. Klein lived in Munich until 1951, where he met Chana, his future wife.
Klein's father went to Brazil, together with his sister Esther. He himself wanted to emigrate to the United States, but the immigration quota was full. So he joined his father and sister, making his way to Brazil via Bolivia, and settled with his family in São Caetano do Sul in greater São Paulo.
There he began working in business, selling sheets, tablecloths, and towels door to door.[3] After five years, he opened his first store, Casas Bahia. The name was an homage to his patrons, the majority of whom were migrant workers from the northeast state of Bahia. Today, there are more than 500 of these stores with over 23 million customers,[4] making Casas Bahia the largest warehouse distributor in Latin America.
The rapid growth of the organization, and Klein's role in building it into a regional economic force were the subject of one of the case studies in C. K. Prahalad's Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. [5]
Klein guarded the company's finances, keeping control of all expenses within his immediate family, although in 1997 he opened the company's books to the public to secure promissary notes for the year.[1]
Klein later passed control of Casas Bahia to his son Michael, who was its CEO as of 2009, and retired in Brazil.