He is married to Christa Schlecker and has two children, Lars Schlecker and Meike Schlecker, both active in the management of the Schlecker company.

At 21 he acquired the degree "Meister" butcher and took over the parental butcher's shop. In 1975 he built his first drug store in Kirchheim unter Teck. Two years later there were already more than 100 stores. As of 2003, there exist more than 13,000 stores across Europe, employing about 50,000 people and turning over about 6.55 billion euros.