The Abu Dhabi-based Lulu Group has revealed its ambitious expansion plans in India.
The group is planning investments of over INR190,000 million ($237 million/AED871 million). This will include malls, hypermarkets and food processing centres.
In an interview to MoneyControl.com, Shibu Philips, director, shopping malls, Lulu Group India said they are on course to launch a dozen shopping malls and over 5 million sqft of retail space over the next four years.
The group, which has a turnover of over $8 billion, has five operational malls in India, including their first one in northern India, in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. The other four malls are in south India – at Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Bengaluru.
LuLu Group operates in 23 countries across the Middle East, Asia, the US, and Europe and employs over 60,000 people. Its international business portfolio ranges from hypermarket operations to shopping mall development, manufacturing and trading of goods, hospitality assets, and real estate. It has retail presence in the UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Philips told MoneyControl: “We are planning to set up 12 malls in the next three years. These would be in Calicut, Tirur, Perinthalmanna, Kottayam, Palakkad (all in the state of Kerala) and Noida, Varanasi, Prayagraj (in the state of Uttar Pradesh), Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.”
All five malls in Kerala are planned as half-million sqft projects, while the one in Ahmedabad will be the largest at 2 million sqft. The Chennai mall will have a million square feet.
The mall in Gurugram (the biggest satellite town adjacent to national capital New Delhi) is already under construction and should be operational in about a year and a half.
With three malls planned in Uttar Pradesh, and one already operational in capital Lucknow, the state has become important in Lulu’s plans.
Philips said Lulu will also look at Kanpur, the biggest city in Uttar Pradesh, very soon.
“We are in the process of procuring land in Prayagraj and Varanasi, after which we may look at Kanpur. What format we consider for these markets (hypermarket or shopping malls) will be a decision that the company board will take after considering the opportunities and potential in the market. This is still on the drawing board stage,” he explained.
“We have already invested INR20,000 million ($25 million) on the Lucknow property. We are also coming up with a food processing centre in the state for which INR5,000 million ($6.25 million) has already been earmarked.”
Bengaluru, often called India’s Silicon Valley, is another focus area. The group already has an 800,000 sq ft property that is 95 percent leased.
“We are planning four more hypermarkets in Bengaluru and one mini mall. The hypermarkets are already in the fit-out stage and will be operational in the next two quarters while for our other centres in the city, we are in an advanced stage of discussions,” he told MoneyControl.
Apart from the food processing unit currently being built in Uttar Pradesh, Philips said Lulu Group has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jammu and Kashmir government earlier this year to establish a food processing unit in the state.
“J&K was an opportunity that came up and we have set up a food processing centre there and we are going to source the best possible fruits for consumers in the entire Middle East,” he said.
