Lulu sets on a massive expansion drive

The group recently opened five new stores in Abu Dhabi, Ghayati, Bahrain and Oman to take its total store tally to 99 and the RAK mall in Ras Al Khaimah would be the Group’s 100^th.

Commenting on the recent launches Yusuffali MA, managing director of the group, said, “this is part of our “Achieve 100” vision which is aimed at further consolidating our numero uno position in the Gulf retail sector and help us spread our wings to other nearby countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

“More than Dh1.5 billion is being invested this year into these new projects and we hope to set the new bench marks in both everyday-grocery segments as well as in the luxury & leisure segments” added Yusuffali. “Very soon we will be opening our first Lulu Shopping Mall, India’s largest, in Kochi, marking our entry in to the world’s most emerging retail market. This new mall with all the world class features will be spread on a 16 acre prime land with more than 2.2 million square feet retail space,” elaborated Yusuffali on his Indian plans.

“Now that we have established ourselves firmly in the main business cities in various countries, our plan now is to branch out to other interior locations and suburbs to take world class shopping nearer to the people rather than make them travel to the bigger cities,” elaborated Yusuffali highlighting the recent opening of Lulu Express in Ghayati, Western Region of Abu Dhabi.

Explaining his plan for the UAE, Yusuffali said: “Emirates continues to be our major market and we will be investing our major chunk here. Apart from the stores we opened recently we are proud of our most ambitious project Mushrif Mall in Abu Dhabi. This is one of its kind mall in the region and we are sure that this will be a retail landmark for the Emirate.”

The group is also strengthening its smaller Express concept of convenience stores across the region. It recently opened three Lulu Express stores in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah to add to existing three stores and also plans to open new ones in other suburbs and new communities. “Due to our strong brand loyalty and well planned business model we were able to sail through the “so called” recession without any slowdown and in fact we recorded a 17 per cent growth in our sales turnover and opened many new stores,” added Yusuffali.

The group, which started off as a trading centre in the sixties has over the years become a major force to reckon with in the hypermarkets and shopping mall sectors in the region.

Today the Lulu brand is synonymous with quality retailing across the Gulf and has been recording constant positive growth rate over the years.

The group is actively involved in various verticals i.e., food processing & exports, trading & imports, travel & tourism, education and IT, etc., apart from the core business of retail.

business@khaleejtimes.com