LuLu Group opened its first hypermarket in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
The group’s 119th hypermarket was inaugurated by Egyptian Minister for Trade Khalid Hanafy, in the presence of Cairo Governor Galal El Saeed, adviser to the Prime Minister Mohamed Abdul Sayed, deputy UAE Ambassador to Egypt Khalifa Thunaiji and other high ranking government and civil officials.
LuLu Group chairman Yusuffali MA, chief executive Saifee T Rupawala, executive director Ashraf Ali MA, director of LuLu Egypt Mohamed Althaf and other top company officials were also present.
The store is located in Twin Plaza, opposite Police Academy on Zakir Hussein road extension in the first settlement of New Cairo.
Spread over 170,000 square feet, it is designed to offer residents a world-class shopping experience at fair prices and friendly service.
The hypermarket will provide the widest range of quality and value-for-money products under one roof.
“We consider Egypt as a very important market for us and our experience of more than four decades of success and accomplishment in the retail industry is sure to help us become the most popular retailer in the region,” Mr Yusuffali said.
“We plan to invest three billion Egyptian pounds ($300 million) in setting up 10 new hypermarkets in the next two years across Egypt.
“The hypermarket will also offer a window of opportunity to the local community. We will encourage the Egyptian agricultural sector by procuring and promoting local produce and also export them to our stores across the GCC and Far East. Currently we are exporting 50m Egyptian pounds and this will go up to 150m next year,” Mr Yusuffali
said.
Main exporting products include fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, cheese and pickles. LuLu also plans to set up its own food processing plants to further boost exports.
“Currently, there are more than 800 Egyptians employed at our new hypermarket in Cairo and we plan to employ 10,000 more Egyptians in the next two years.
“We already have more than 3,000 working in our operations in GCC countries and continuously train them in our various operations,” Mr Yusuffali added.
UAE-based LuLu Group which currently has 118 stores in GCC and India is embarking on a massive expansion drive into the Far Eastern market. The first hypermarket of LuLu will open in Malaysia and Indonesia by March next year.
The group is also planning to open 15 more hypermarkets in these two countries in the next two years, said a company source.
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