Middle East Retail Giant, Lulu group on Monday opened its new shopping mall in Bengaluru and will complete two more properties in India during the next six months as the company remains bullish on the long-term growth of the retail business.
Lulu Group has committed an investment of around Rs 4,500 crore for the development of five shopping malls in India in the first phase of expansion in the country and out of the five, the three malls have already become operational at Kochi, Thrissur and now Bengaluru.
The Lulu group manages and operates the ‘Global Mall’ at Rajajinagar in Bengaluru, an 8 lac square feet property that is not owned by it.
“We have one large hypermarket in Kochi and one small hypermarket in Thrissur district. Bengaluru is our third Hypermarket in India,” Lulu Group Chairman and Managing Director M. A. Yusuff Ali said.
Besides a 2lakh sq ft hypermarket, the Bengaluru mall will have a first-of-its-kind entertainment zone, Funtura, spread over 60,000 square feet.
“There has been some delay in our two mall projects at Trivandrum and Lucknow. We will not back off from any projects. In the first phase, we had planned these five projects. The first batch of investment is around Rs 4,500 crore for all these five projects,” Ali added.
The upcoming mall in Trivandrum will open by end of this year, while the retail mall at Lucknow is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2022
Recognizing the importance of online retail, the Lulu group CMD said that it is an omnichannel player.
“Wherever we are opening mall, we are adding online shopping as well. Online is truth but at the same time, experential shopping and touch & feel will stay,” he said.
Ali highlighted that health and fitness, as well as organic food categories, have become important because of the pandemic. He expects a strong revival in the retail industry during this festival season.
Lulu Group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, posted an annual turnover of USD 7.4 billion last year operates 215 Lulu stores and 23 shopping malls across the GCC, Egypt, India, and the Far East.
