Dubai: Lush, a UK-based cosmetics brand, plans to open 50 stores in the Middle East over the next three years.
The push in the Middle East comes as the company enjoys strong sales growth, Anita Baker, its business director for the Middle East and North Africa region, said by phone.
“The current business is doing well,” she said.
The UAE will see up to 12 of the new stores. Lush operates eight stores here already and plans to open one more in Dubai’s City Walk in the short-term. Up to 11 of the new outlets will open in Saudi Arabia. Baker did not give the investment figure for the expansion, except to say that “the cash will be internally generated.”
The new outlets will be larger and “better located”, she said.
Lush already has a flagship store in The Dubai Mall. The cosmetics company markets its products, including shampoo bars and shower gels, as “green.” It says it does not test its products on animals, a growing demand among consumers.
According to Baker, Lush is also considering opening stores in Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi, and is eyeing expansion into Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt and Iran. The firm is currently present in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Lebanon. It plans to enter Oman later this year with an outlet in City Centre Muscat.
New products
Sales in the region for the last financial year ending June 30, 2015 reached Dh72 million, up 50 per cent compared to the previous year, driven by “new store openings” and “strong like-for-like sales”, Baker said.
“In that financial year, we opened seven new shops, so we ended June 2015 with 22 shops in the region,” she added.
In the current financial year ending June 30, 2016, the company plans to open three more outlets in the Middle East, has already opened three in Al Ain, Jeddah and Kuwait so far this year, bringing the total to 28.
It is also launching 250 new products in the region, and renovating its flagship store in The Dubai Mall in the second quarter of 2016.
The Middle East expansion comes as Lush marks its 20th year of operations in 2015. It has more than 900 stores in 49 countries.
