Hypermarket Chain Lulu Opens First Mall In Hyderabad, Many More To Follow (Image: x.com/@MinisterKTR)
The UAE based Lulu Group has opened its first mall in Hyderabad, at Kukatpally. The mall was inaugurated by Telangana Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao. The new mega mall is spread over a 5 lakh sq feet which houses a 2 lakh sq feet hypermarket.
Lulu Group has planned and committed investment to the tune of Rs.500 crore in the state. The new mall, which is the Group’s first venture, is a part of this investment. The Lulu mall has an investment of Rs. 300 crore and is situated on the revamped premises of the former Manjeera mall, said the Deccan Chronicle.
The mall has about 100 domestic and international brands available, there is a five-screen cinema, six restaurants and a food court that can host 500 people. The parking space of the mall can accommodate 1000 cars and 900 bikes. Apart from this, the opening of the mall would be providing 1500 direct jobs and about 2000 jobs indirectly, the Executive Director of Lulu Group International, M.A. Ashraf Ali said.
Fresh products and groceries, new fashion, home appliances, electronic goods, mobiles, IT and lifestyle products would be available in the mall along with a 20,000 sq ft entertainment zone.
On future plans of the group, he said that, there were plans for smaller outlets in Tier II and III cities and further, a destination mall would be set up at Hyderabad, for which the location has been finalised. This plan could take about a period of two and a half years to be completed and it would be for a bigger investment of Rs.1,200 crores.
After Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Coimbatore, Hyderabad is the sixth city where the group has its strong presence in the retail sector with its focus on hypermarket.
In Telangana, the Group announced plans to set up a modern export-oriented meat processing unit at Chengicherla to the tune of Rs 200 crores investment. Moreover, there are also plans to invest in the food and fishing processing segments in the state.
Earlier, during the visit of minister K T Rama Rao to the World Economic Forum in Davos last year, many discussions had occurred between the Lulu Group and the Telangana government. A memorandum of understanding was also signed between the parties as an outcome of these discussion, thus the investments have become possible, Mr Ashraf Ali said.
