Emke plans four more Saudi hypermarkets

Dubai: UAE-based retail major Emke Group has announced major investment plans for Saudi Arabia.

The group, which operates 75 stores in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), opened their 76th store in Al Khobar yesterday.

Elaborating on their future plans for the Saudi market, Yousuf Ali M.A., managing director, said: "Saudi Arabia is a very important and crucial market for us and we plan to expand aggressively here. We have already invested Dh140 million in our Al Khobar store and plan to open four more hypermarkets and department stores at an investment of Dh600 million by the end of 2010."

The new LuLu Hypermarket in Al Khobar covers more than 250,000 square feet and is located conveniently on King Fahd Street with easy access for both residents of the Dammam region and visitors from Bahrain.

"All our planned projects are on track and we were able to open five new hypermarkets this year, and our immediate plans include the upcoming Mushrif Mall, shopping mall in Al Ain, four hypermarkets in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait," he added.

Emphasising the group's efforts in creating employment opportunities for the local youth, Yousuf Ali said: "We have currently recruited around 200 local Saudi staff and intend to take it to 1,250 by the end of 2010. We also train local staff by sending them to our other stores in GCC countries."

Reviewing the current market scenario he said: "The so-called global slowdown has had little impact on the retail sector, especially the hypermarket and supermarket formats and whatever slowdown there was has already been overcome and business is as usual. We have been consistently achieving our targeted figures in both sales volumes as well as revenues and don't see any hiccoughs ahead."

Group sees better year

Emke Group is expecting a higher turnover this year despite the so-called slowdown in the market and is slated to have opened 100 stores by the end of 2011.

The markets include India, where the group is building the biggest mall in Cochin, and in Egypt where the mall is expected to be operational by mid 2010.