| 10 Mar 2010 |
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Lulu Unveils Oman Expansion Plan to Boost Growth
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MUSCAT -- The region's top retail chain, LuluLulu
, on Tuesday unveiled major expansion plans in Oman involving investments of more than OMR100 million, and said it expected its operations in the sultanate to contribute 25 per cent of total sales by next year. It also said its business grew by more than 20 per cent last year in spite of the global economic downturn.
The Abu Dhabi-based group, which owns 76 stores across the GCC and Yemen, plans to open five new hypermarkets in Oman this year at a total cost of OMR90 million, and will take the total count of LuluLulu outlets in the country to 11.
The new shops will be sited at Wadi Kabir in Muscat, Khabourah in Batinah, Khasab in Musandam, Salalah in Dhofar and Nizwa in Dhakhliya. The branch in Wadi Kabir will be the first to open next month.
The retail major will also invest OMR14 million in an ultra-modern shopping mall and hypermarket in Buraimi, expected to be ready by end of next year.
"Oman is one of our biggest markets and the most promising in our future growth plan," LuluLulu
Managing Director Yusuffali MA told a news conference. He added the company's strategy in the sultanate was to "go to the people, instead making them come to us. We have decided go to all the wilayats to be as close to shoppers as possible." He said the new store in Salalah, which he described as his "dream project," would become the group's biggest outlet in Oman when it opens in October.
Yusuffali attributed the special focus on Salalah to its Gulf-wide attraction as an immensely popular tourist destination. Notwithstanding the recession, Yusuffali said the company's turnover in the GCC rose by 22 per cent in 2009 over the preceding year. He added LuluLulu's market share of the organised retail sector in the region had now crossed 32 per cent.
He said LuluLulu's Oman operations currently accounted for 17 per cent of the chain's total turnover which, he added, would jump to 25 per cent when the new outlets begin operations.
"We also send Omani staff regularly to our stores in other countries for training, thus giving them better exposure and enhanced knowledge about the international market."
Yusufalli also praised the pro-development and liberal investment policies by Oman, saying these have enabled the sultanate to attract "huge foreign investments" to the country.
"As Oman had the least effects of the global recession, our operations have not been affected and this gives me greater confidence about Oman," he said.
By Ravindra Nath
© Khaleej Times 2010
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