Doha: Marching ahead with its aggressive expansion in the Saudi Arabian market, Middle East’s retail major, Lulu Hypermarket, has opened its latest outlet in Dammam, the capital city of Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
It’s the 6th in Saudi Arabia and 121st in the GCC. The latest hypermarket was officially inaugurated by Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, yesterday. The occasion was graced by Abdullah Al Ahamed, President of Dammam Municipality and several high ranking officials from various government departments, representatives from local business community and prominent citizens.
Speaking at the inauguration, Lulu Group Chairman Yusuffali MA announced the proposed launch of four more hypermarkets this year, one in two in Jeddah and one each in Hail and Hofuf. “In 2017 we will launch six more in the Kingdom including in Makkah and Madina” added Yusuff Ali.
The new hypermarket, located in Prince Mohamed bin Fahad Road in Dammam provides a one-stop shopping destination for the growing city dwellers, which include a growing community of nationals and expatriates. The hypermarket also houses Sparkys family entertainment, food court consisting of authentic Arabic fine dining, Arabic and Filipino cuisine, and coffee shops, pharmacy from ATM and money exchange.
Revealing his investment plans, Yusuff Ali said: “We have already invested more than SR800m till now and intend to further invest SR700m by the end of 2017, taking our total investment to more than SR1.5bn in the Kingdom”.
“The opening of the Hypermarket in Dammam underscores our increasing presence in the region and our commitment to serve one of the growing and important markets in Saudi Arabia. We have always believed that it’s our duty to nurture the local talent and currently there are more than 1,500 Saudis who work with us and our goal is to provide employment to 5,000 Saudi nationals by the end of 2017,” said Yusuff Ali.
Currently Lulu has more than 30 percent Saudis in their workforce and provides best quality training to absorb them in various managerial and specialised sections.
Other important attendees at the inauguration: Lulu Group Executive Director – Ashraf Ali MA, Directors – Althaf Mohamed and Salim MA, Regional Directors of Saudi Arabia – Abdul Basheer, Mohammed Shehim and Mohammed Mustafa.
The Peninsula
