Lulu Group, the UAE-based retail major, is investing about Rs 500 crore to set up a food processing plant in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Lulu will set up a 100 per cent export-oriented food and agri-produce processing park in Greater Noida.
A land allotment order for 20 acres has been handed over to Lulu Group Chairman Yusuf Ali M.A. by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The plant is expected to generate direct employment for 700 people and indirect employment for about 1,500 people. The Lulu group will procure and export about 20,000 tonnes of local fruits and vegetables to its hypermarkets around the world.
The group will be directly sourcing from the farmers of Uttar Pradesh, ensuring better revenues for them. He also informed that the Rs. 2,000-crore Lulu Mall, with the largest hypermarket, is in the final stages of completion and will be inaugurated in the first week of April 2022.
The 22 lakh square foot shopping mall at Amar Shaheed Path will have 220 national and international brands, a family entertainment centre, a 3,000 capacity food court and restaurants, an 11-screen PVR cinema, and a total parking capacity of 3,000, including a separate parking building.
Once completed, the Lulu Mall in Lucknow will employ over 5,000 directly, while another 10,000 people will get indirect employment. In India, the Lulu group already has four operational shopping malls in Kochi, Thrissur, Trivandrum, and Bengaluru. The mall in Bengaluru is not owned by the Lulu group, but it is managed and operated by the Lulu group.
Earlier this month, the Lulu group announced an investment of Rs 2,000 crore near Ahmedabad to set up a modern shopping mall. The construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2022 and be completed within 30 months.
Apart from a shopping mall, the Lulu Group will also set up food processing and logistics centres in Baroda and Surat, respectively, which will facilitate exports. The Lulu group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, posted an annual turnover of USD 7.4 billion last year. The Lulu group currently has 220 hypermarkets and shopping malls in the Middle East, Egypt, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia with a global workforce of over 57,000 employees.
The group’s business portfolio ranges from hypermarket operations to shopping mall development, manufacturing and trading of goods, food processing plants, wholesale distribution, hospitality assets, and real estate development.