Nils Brandes was born in Hamburg in 1967. Diploma in Business Administration and Computer Science.

Nils Brandes studied Business Administration and Computer Science in Berlin from 1988 until 1992. After completing his studies, he held various management positions at companies such as IBM, EPSON and Samsung Electro-Mechanics before founding the consulting company Institute for Simplicity together with Dieter Brandes.

He advises on the planning, implementation and development of hard discount concepts. He was or is active in Turkey, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, the Philippines, Indonesia and Nigeria. Discount grocery stores have been founded and developed in all of these countries, operating according to the original principles of ALDI in Germany.

In 2019, together with Dieter Brandes, a new edition of the English version of the ALDI book Konsequent Einfach. Die ALDI Erfolgsstory was published: Bare Essentials, The ALDI Story, … from excellent to ordinary with revised chapters and updated data. In a new and additional chapter, the authors take a critical look at the recent changes at ALDI Nord and ALDI Süd as ALDI has deviated from the original successful model and has become a rather ordinary company.