Abu-Dhabi-headquartered LuLu Group on Monday inked an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government to set up shopping malls, hypermarkets, food processing and logistic centres in the state with an investment of Rs 3,500 crore. The $7.4-billion retail conglomerate said it aims to create more than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state in the next three years.
The MoU was signed by Pooja Kulkarni, MD and CEO of Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance & Export Promotion Bureau, and Ashraf Ali MA, executive director of LuLu Group, in the presence of state chief minister MK Stalin, industry minister Thangam Thenarasu, LuLu Group chairman Yusuff Ali MA, and other officials and dignitaries at the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce.
As per the MoU, the first shopping mall will come up in Chennai by 2024 while the first hypermarket is expected to open by this year-end in Coimbatore at the Laxmi Mills compound, a company statement said.
Apart from the malls and hypermarkets, the LuLu Group will also set up food processing and logistics centres for procuring & processing agri produce for exports to West Asian countries. A high-level delegation from LuLu will soon visit the state to finalise locations and related formalities.
“We are very happy to explore bigger investment opportunities not only in Chennai but also in tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai and Trichy,” Yusuff Ali said during the MoU signing ceremony. “Our aim is to provide more than 15,000 direct and indirect job opportunities to Tamil youth in the next three years,” he added.
In India, the group currently has three shopping malls in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru, respectively. Its mall in Thiruvananthapuram was inaugurated in December last year. Its fourth mall is expected to be opened in Lucknow by the end of May.
LuLu currently operates more than 225 hypermarkets and shopping malls in West Asia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. The group employs more than 57,000 people globally. Lulu hypermarkets and department stores have a 32% share of the retail market in Gulf Cooperation Council countries.