LuLu opens new store in Dammam
The UAE’s LuLu Group, which has 10 hypermarkets and eight Aramco commissionaires in the Kingdom, has further expanded its presence in the country by opening its 12th store in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. The outlet was officially inaugurated by Wajih Malibari, administrator area home ownership development division, Saudi Aramco operations.
The event was attended by several high-ranking officials from various government departments, representatives from local business community and prominent citizens.
Yusuffali M.A., chairman of LuLu Group, said: “We are moving in line with the Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s robust economy and the government’s investorfriendly policies have encouraged and provided us a favorable environment to continue to establish ourselves and to contribute to the economic growth of the Kingdom.
“Our expansion plans are firm in the Kingdom and by 2020, the country will get another 20 LuLu Hypermarkets out of which six will be opened by the year 2018. This includes two hypermarkets in Riyadh followed by one each in Tabuk and Dammam.”
He added: “Currently, our group employs 2,400 Saudi nationals, out of whom 1,100 are female staff, and we consider it as our duty to nurture them as we have a very hardworking, dedicated and productive manpower in Saudi nationals. Our goal is to employ 5,000 Saudi nationals by the year 2020 and 10,000 by 2024.”
LuLu’s 143rd branch in Dammam’s Al-Nawras (formerly Petromin) neighborhood has more than 20,000-square-feet of shopping area.
Yusuffali said: “We attribute our success to the visionary leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the government and the people of this great country who have always given tremendous support to investments and economic development.”
He added: “We are planning to expand aggressively here as the Kingdom is investing heavily in various sectors, which will surely spur all-round growth.
“We have already invested more than SR800 million ($213.3 million) until now and intend to further invest SR500 million by the end of 2019, taking our total investment to more than SR1.3 billion in the Kingdom.”
“Very recently the Kingdom has witnessed some path-breaking economic policies like the announcement of the SR72 billion stimulus package to the private sector by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the unveiling of the NEOM Mega City by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These historic decisions will see huge investment pouring into the country, which will surely benefit the economy of the country by job creation, GDP growth and boosting the local industries in the Kingdom,” added Yusuffali.