Abu Dhabi’s LuLu reveals plans for seventh Saudi hypermarket

Abu Dhabi retailer LuLu Group has announced plans to open its first hypermarket in Jeddah, the company’s seventh in Saudi Arabia, as part of a large-scale expansion in the kingdom.

Company chairman Yusuffali M.A. told local media that the business community was looking at non-oil commercial activities with renewed interest following the announcement of the Vision 2030 reforms, according to Saudi Gazette.

He said the group plans to open four more hypermarkets this year including another in Briman in Jeddah and two in Hail and Hofuf. A total of eight are planned in the kingdom by 2018, including in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

The chairman said LuLu had invested SAR 1bn ($266.5m) in the kingdom to date and planned to invest a further SAR 800m ($213m) in the next two years.

“We have always believed that it’s our duty to nurture local talent and train them in managerial positions. Currently 1,700 Saudis including women work with us and our goal is to provide employment to 5,000 Saudi nationals by the end of 2018,” said Yusuffali.

LuLu’s current Saudi footprint includes three stores in Riyadh and one each in Al-Khobar, Jubail, Dammam respectively.