UAE-based retailer LuLu Group is set to expand its presence in the pan-India region. The group is planning to set up shopping malls, food processing centers and logistics in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Jammu & Kashmir.
Yusuff Ali MA, Chairman and Managing Director of Lulu Group International, had a series of meetings in this regard with various governments in Davos on the side lines of the World Economic Forum 2024, held recently. This includeed meetings with Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Revanth Reddy, Chief Minister of Telangana, DB Patil, Industry Minister of Karnataka and other government officials from Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Shopping mall in Ahmedabad
LuLu plans to construct what it termed India’s biggest shopping mall, in Ahmedabad, with an estimated cost of Rs40 billion.
The construction for the proposed shopping mall will start in 2024, said Yusuff Ali, on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. The shopping mall project alone will create employment for more than 7,500 people.
In September 2023, Yusuff Ali gave a hint that his group was going to set up two large shopping malls in India - in Ahmedabad and Chennai.
During the India-UAE Business Summit held on the sidelines of Vibrant Gujarat summit, Yusuff Ali said, “The relationship and friendship between India and the UAE are historical and it is strengthening day by day. The visits of President His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to India and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, to the UAE have taken this relationship totally to a new level.
“We are going to construct one of the largest shopping malls in Ahmedabad and Chennai. We are also going to different states for shopping malls and food processing centres,” he said.
“Our strategy is to expand our footprint both in India and UAE in the retail, hospitality and food processing sectors. In Gujarat ,we are working together with the UAE government to set up Asia’s biggest food park, where we will have our food processing and logistic centre,” added Yusuff Ali.
Projects in Uttar Pradesh
During the meeting at Davod with officials from the government of Uttar Pradesh, the point of discussion was the progress of the Food Park that is soon to be opened in Greater Noida, as well as that of the Lulu Hypermarkets in Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
Lulu Group is also planning to set up a food processing centre in Vijayapura district, in the state of Karnataka at an investment of Rs3 billion.
Currently, Lulu Group has malls in six Indian cities - Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Coimbatore and Hyderabad, with Palakkad being the latest.
LuLu Group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has been known as a trendsetter in the retail industry in the Middle East and North Africa region. It operates over 260 hypermarkets and supermarkets and is immensely popular with discerning shoppers across the GCC, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
LuLu Group employs a 70,000-plus strong workforce, representing 46 different nations and has an annual turnover of $8 billion globally.
