UAE-based Lulu Group to open first Lulu Mall in Hyderabad, plans to invest over Rs. 3,500 cr in Telangana

HYDERABAD: The UAE-based retailer Lulu Group is gearing up for its first Lulu Mall and Lulu Hypermarket in Hyderabad city. Yusuff Ali MA, chairman of Lulu Group, made the announcement during a press conference in the city on Monday.

The 5 lakh sq. ft. mall originally referred to as Manjeera Mall was rebranded as Lulu Mall with a Rs. 300 crore investment, providing people of Hyderabad and its surrounding areas with an international shopping experience.

The mall would have a massive Lulu Hypermarket, more than 75 local and international companies, a 5-screen cinema with 1,400 seats, a multi-cuisine food court, and a children's entertainment centre, among other things. The mall would employ over 2,000 people and would be conveniently located in Kukatpally.

The highlight of the mall would be the 2,00,000-square-ft Lulu Hypermarket, which would offer an extensive range of fresh produce and groceries and have separate sections for fashion, home appliances, electronics, mobiles, IT, and lifestyle products under the brand names ‘Lulu Fashion Store’ and ‘Lulu Connect'.

There would also be special sections to support and promote the local Telangana based agricultural and trade sectors, to further boost the employment opportunity for local youth.

While speaking to the media in Hyderabad on Monday, chairman of Lulu Group, Yusuff Ali MA, said, "Lulu Group’s investment in the state is the outcome of several discussions and an MOU it signed with the Government of Telangana during Industry Minister KT Rama Rao’s visit to the World Economic Forum last year in Davos.”

Yusuff Ali MA said, "The first project in Hyderabad is part of the Rs. 500 crore investment that Lulu committed to the state of Telangana."

He requested Industries Minister K T Rama Rao to inaugurate the mall in August to which the minister readily agreed.

KTR highlighted the success story of Telangana and how it embarked upon five revolutions - green (agriculture), pink (meat and poultry), blue (fisheries), yellow (oil-palm cultivation), and white (milk and milk products). He urged Lulu group to set up processing plants for fish and meat products in Telangana to which the company consented instantly.

Lulu Mall is likely to be inaugurated in August 2023

Additionally, Rs. 200 crore would be spent on an export-oriented, modern, integrated meat processing plant at Chengicherla with a production capacity of 60 tonnes per day. The project would generate employment for more than 2,500 people. Commercial operations were expected to start at the facility in the next 18 months.

Apart from this, new investments of Rs 3,500 crore were committed in Telangana over the next 5 years by the Lulu group. It included a destination shopping mall in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore and mini malls on the outskirts of Hyderabad and other major cities and towns in the state with an investment outlay of Rs 1,000 crore.

Lulu Group also planned for an agriculture sourcing and logistics hub near the Hyderabad Airport to facilitate exports and promote local Telangana produce across India and the world. Other plans included a seafood procurement and processing centre to support the fishing industry.

Lulu group adds Hyderabad to its list of cities

Hyderabad is the sixth city where the Lulu group has developed its presence, following Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Coimbatore.

Lulu Group, which operates over 250 hypermarkets and 24 shopping malls in 22 countries, has been rapidly expanding in India, with investments in food manufacturing and retail projects in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Greater Noida, Varanasi, and other cities.

Lulu Group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and led by Yusuff Ali MA, had established itself as a trendsetter in the Middle East and North Africa retail market. It operates over 250 hypermarkets and supermarkets and is a favourite among sophisticated customers throughout the GCC, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

It also employs over 65,000 people from 42 different countries and has a global revenue of USD 8 billion.