Who Is Rami Levy? Israel's Discount Supermarket King
He started with a single shop in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market. Forty-five years later, his name is the synonym for price discounting in Israel.
The Builders | Olam.business
Updated June 14, 2026
He started with a single stall in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market in 1976 — Israel's first discount store. Forty-five years later, his name is the synonym for price discounting in Israel, his face is on the stores, and the company he built is publicly traded as Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
In 1976, a young man fresh out of IDF service opened a small grocery in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market. He bought wholesale. He undercut his neighbors on price. He refused to charge what the major chains charged for the same products.
Forty-five years later, Rami Levy is one of Israel's three largest supermarket operators, a publicly traded company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: RMLI), the operator of one of the country's discount mobile carriers, and a household name.
Rami Levy is not just a brand. It is a position — pro-consumer, anti-cartel, pro-price-cut. It has shaped what Israelis pay for groceries, milk, eggs, and mobile data, and it has done so in public, with Levy himself frequently on television advocating for it.
His face is on his stores. He is the brand.
Snapshot
| Born | 1955, Jerusalem, Israel |
| Family origin | Kurdish Jewish; one of six children. Father worked for the Jerusalem municipality. Grew up in the Pachim neighborhood adjacent to Mahane Yehuda. |
| Education | No formal higher education; severe dyslexia. Founded the business directly out of IDF service. |
| Main company | Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing (TASE: RMLI) — Owner and CEO |
| Market position | Third largest Israeli retail supermarket chain, behind Shufersal and Alon Holding–Blue Square |
| Subsidiaries | Rami Levy Communications (MVNO using Pelephone network); Yafiz clothing stores; Israir Airlines |
| IPO | Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, 2007 |
| Based in | Talpiot Industrial Zone, Jerusalem (corporate HQ above the store) |
| Known for | Aggressive pricing, anti-cartel stance, low-cost mobile carrier, public-facing populist business identity |
The Business Story
Levy grew up in Jerusalem's Pachim neighborhood — adjacent to Mahane Yehuda — in poverty. His parents had immigrated from Kurdistan; his father worked for the Jerusalem municipality, his mother raised six children at home. Levy flunked out of school due to severe dyslexia.
Upon completing his army service in 1976, he opened his first store — a 40-square-meter stall on Rehov Hashikma (Sycamore Street) in the Mahane Yehuda market, on a property his grandfather had left to the family. He named the company after himself and the street. He bought wholesale from a supplier, then went direct to the importer after three months, and sold at margins the dominant chains were not matching. It became Israel's first discount store.
He scaled the model store by store through the 1980s and 1990s, opening his first full supermarket in Talpiot in 1992 and eventually expanding outside Jerusalem into Tel Aviv, Haifa, Modiin, Netanya, Tiberias, Afula, and the West Bank.
The company went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2007. Levy used the capital to push aggressively into adjacent categories — mobile (Rami Levy Communications, launched 2011 as an MVNO using the Pelephone network), Yafiz clothing stores, real estate, hotels, fresh produce supply chains, kosher imports, and online grocery. The supermarket business now operates dozens of stores across Israel, including outlets serving mixed Jewish-Arab populations and several inside Judea and Samaria. The group also holds a stake in Israir Airlines.
The company also owns approximately 65% of the land on which its supermarkets stand — roughly 35,000 square meters across Mevasseret Zion, Modiin, Gush Etzion, and Pardes Hanna. This real-estate position, financed largely from equity, is part of what makes the discount pricing model defensible.
Why Levy Matters in Israel
Rami Levy did to Israeli groceries what discount carriers did to European aviation. He proved the markups embedded in the dominant chains were optional, then forced the dominant chains to compete.
The 2011 "cottage cheese protest" — the consumer revolt against dairy prices that helped trigger Israel's broader social protest that summer — was made possible in part by the cost benchmark Rami Levy stores had been quietly setting for years. Israelis could compare, because Rami Levy gave them a comparison.
He has used that platform consistently. Levy has publicly attacked Israeli food cartels and pushed for the breaking of import monopolies on dairy, eggs, and meat. He is one of the few business figures in Israel who has built genuine populist credibility while operating as a billionaire — net worth estimated at $1 billion by Haaretz over a decade ago and meaningfully higher now.
What Rami Levy Does Today
Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing operates the country's leading discount supermarket chain, a low-cost mobile carrier with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, a hotels portfolio, a real estate portfolio concentrated around its store footprint, Yafiz clothing stores, a stake in Israir Airlines, an online grocery business that expanded sharply during COVID and held that expansion, and a growing portfolio of cross-vertical retail bets.
The company has expanded through both organic store growth and acquisition. It has been one of the few Israeli retailers that successfully bridged Jewish and Arab consumer markets in mixed cities, employing both populations and serving both with the same store and pricing.
Levy's Key Holdings
- Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing 1989 Ltd. (TASE: RMLI) — Owner and CEO
- Dozens of supermarkets across Israel including the West Bank
- Rami Levy Communications (mobile MVNO on Pelephone infrastructure)
- Yafiz clothing stores
- Israir Airlines (stake)
- Real estate portfolio: ~65% of land under its supermarket footprint, ~35,000 sqm across Mevasseret Zion, Modiin, Gush Etzion, Pardes Hanna
- Hotels and hospitality assets (Eden Hotel Jerusalem, others)
- Online grocery platform
- Multiple food import lines and supply-chain operations
- Mall development partnerships (e.g., Mega Or Holdings, Ariel Mall)
Levy's Legacy and Influence
In a country where the supermarket industry is concentrated and prices have historically been compared with frustration to those in Europe and the United States, Rami Levy is the structural answer. The chain itself is a major employer with 5,000+ staff. The brand is a category of political conversation. Levy himself has run for Jerusalem city council and is a frequent participant in public debates over consumer policy.
He has built a business that is, by Israeli standards, unusually transparent. His pricing is the policy. His face on the wall is the marketing.
Why Levy Matters Now
In 2026, with food prices under continued political pressure in Israel, the Levy operation remains the price floor against which national grocery inflation is measured. The mobile business represents the same logic applied to telecom. As consolidation pressures grow in retail and as cartel-breaking remains a recurring policy debate, Levy occupies a rare position: a publicly traded billionaire who is also the public face of a consumer movement.
He buys direct. He sells cheap. The country knows the model. The name is on the store.
FAQ
Who is Rami Levy?
Rami Levy (born 1955, Jerusalem) is an Israeli businessman, the founder, owner, and CEO of Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing — Israel's third-largest supermarket chain and the country's first discount store. The company is publicly traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker RMLI. He founded the business in 1976 immediately after IDF service.
What is Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing?
Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing is Israel's third-largest retail supermarket chain (behind Shufersal and Alon Holding-Blue Square), founded in 1976 on Hashikma Street in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market. It was Israel's first discount store. The company went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2007 (TASE: RMLI) and operates supermarkets, an MVNO, Yafiz clothing stores, a stake in Israir Airlines, and major real estate holdings.
What is Rami Levy Communications?
Rami Levy Communications is the discount mobile virtual network operator launched by the group in 2011, using Pelephone's infrastructure. It was the first MVNO in Israel to buy minute blocks from established carriers and resell them at a discount, applying the supermarket model to telecom.
How is Rami Levy different from Shufersal?
Shufersal is Israel's largest supermarket chain by store count and revenue. Rami Levy is the third-largest, defined by an aggressive discount-pricing model. Levy founded Israel's first discount store in 1976 and the company has consistently undercut the dominant chains, forcing them to compete on price — a dynamic credited with shaping Israel's 2011 "cottage cheese protest" and the broader social-protest summer.
Where is Rami Levy based?
The corporate headquarters sit above a supermarket in the Talpiot Industrial Zone of southern Jerusalem. Levy lives in the Jerusalem area and operates the business from there.
Did Rami Levy go to university?
No. Levy flunked out of school due to severe dyslexia and went straight from IDF service into business in 1976. He still has difficulty reading. The founder profile — Kurdish-Jewish immigrant family, no formal higher education, built one of Israel's largest retail companies — is part of his populist standing.
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מי הוא רמי לוי? המכולתניק ששינה את הקמעונאות הישראלית
התחיל עם חנות אחת בשוק מחנה יהודה ב-1976. ארבעים וחמש שנים לאחר מכן, שמו הוא שם נרדף להוזלת מחירים בישראל.
ב-1976 צעיר אחד פתח חנות מכולת קטנה בשוק מחנה יהודה בירושלים. קנה ישיר. מכר בזול. סירב לגבות את המחירים שהרשתות הגדולות גבו על אותם מוצרים.
ארבעים וחמש שנים לאחר מכן, רמי לוי הוא אחד ממפעילי הסופרמרקטים הגדולים בישראל, חברה ציבורית בבורסה, מפעיל של אחת מחברות הסלולר הזולות במדינה, ושם בית.
הפנים שלו על החנויות. הוא המותג.
The Olam Editorial Team | The Builders / הבונים
