Lulu opens new hypermarket in Saudi Arabia’s Saihat

UAE based retail conglomerate Lulu Group has opened its latest Hypermarket in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The latest store from Lulu was officially inaugurated by Ibrahim Al- Khorayef, governor of Qatif in the presence of Yusuff Ali M A., chairman and MD of Lulu Group in Saihat.

The 133,000 square feet store, which is also 28th in the country is located in Saihat in the Al Muntazah district and features all the top buys that customers have come to expect from LuLu – an extensive supermarket, fresh food, department store, the BLSH (cosmetics) and LuLu Connect (digital & electronics).

Customers will have excellent ease of shopping with 30 checkout counters and 400 dedicated parking spaces. The store has been designed with a modern layout that makes it easy for shoppers to navigate.

Yusuffali said, “The opening of this new store helps Lulu to align its future growth with the opportunities that the kingdom has made available to investors. The leadership of Saudi Arabia has taken bold steps to empower its youth and invest in new areas such as agri-business and local food. The group will do everything possible to support this and use its retail footprint to excellent effect for this purpose.”

Special features in-store include healthy and diet food choices, an extensive range of ‘free from’ foods, pet foods, a seafood section, premium meats and an expansive imported product range. There will also be a wide choice of freshly made items, from fresh-squeezed juices to fresh-baked breads and cakes.

The Saihat store will also offer shoppers the environmentally-sound and technologically advanced service of an e-receipt for every purchase which will go as an SMS message to their phone upon payment at the checkout counter.

Lulu Group has been on expansion spree lately. Between 2020 and 2023, they are planning to open 91 hypermarkets as part of its $2.9bn investment in its retail network. The chain is currently present in 12 countries, including the GCC, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Egypt, with 235 hypermarkets, shopping malls, and fulfillment centers.

Nandakumar Vijayan, director of Marketing and Corporate Communications said, “Despite Covid-19 and other challenges, the company is continuing to grow. We have expanded our operations across the world and will never stop growing.”

In recent news, the group also invested $365m to open the biggest mall in Gujarat, India. The mall, which will be located in Ahmedabad will have 300 national and international brands, a 3,000 people capacity food court, 15-screen multiplex cinemas, India’s biggest children’s amusement centre and many other attractions.

Furthermore, the group plans to build a state-of-the-art logistics hub in Johannesburg, South Africa. Creating a retail and support network in Africa opens up new opportunities for LuLu Group. Additionally, it will help the hypermarket operator source South African produce. The project is likely to be completed by 2024.