ABU DHABI: Lulu Group will invest $500 million over next five years to mark its retail push in Indonesia by opening its first hypermarket in the capital city of Jakarta by this year end.
The announcement came during the visit of President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, (popularly known as Jokowi) to Abu Dhabi. He visited Lulu Hypermarket along with a high level delegation at Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi.
The Indonesian President is on a five-day state visits to three Middle East countries, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to boost Indonesia’s ties with the three countries, particularly on investment, trade and Indonesian migrant worker protection.
The Coordinating Minister of Economy, DarminNasution, Trade Minister, Thomas Lembong, Minister of National Development Plans, SofyanDjalil, State Secretariat Minister, Pratikno, and the Head of the Investment Coordinating Board, Franky Sibarani, PramonoAnung, Cabinet Secretary are also part of President Jokowis entourage.
“With an initial investment of $300 million in the first phase, we plan to open 15 hypermarkets by the end of 2017 and a central logistics and warehousing facility in Jakarta. These projects are likely to generate more than 5,000 job opportunities for Indonesians and to train them all levels” said Yusuffali MA, managing director of Lulu Group.
“The fact that we are going to Indonesia with our Halal Hypermarket concept, is giving us the encouragement to look for a wider market segment there,” he added.
Apart from the capital city of Jakarta, Lulu intends to open hypermarkets in Bandung, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.
“We also plan to set up contract farming to ensure continuous supply of high quality products and to support the Indonesian agriculture sector” Yusuffali said.
The Indonesian President was given a rousing welcome at the Hypermarket by Yusuff Ali MA, Saifee Rupawala, CEO, Salim MA, Director, Rajmohan Nair, Director – Lulu Far East Operations and large number of Indonesian expatriates.
President Jokowi was in his charming best, seen shaking hands and posing for pictures with an overflowing crowd chanting his name. President Jokowi and the accompanying delegation were taken to a guided tour of hypermarket by Yusuff Ali who briefed him about specialties of the retail store.
The president later said his visit to Lulu Hypermarket was to see Indonesian products mainly agricultural products and asked Yusuff Ali to export more products from villages and towns in Indonesia. Jokowi even asked about the prices of the various Indonesian products imported to Abu Dhabi.
The Lulu chain currently operates 117 stores across the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, and India.
