The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities of Egypt signed an agreement with UAE’s LuLu Group to establish new hypermarkets in different parts of Cairo.
On behalf of the Egyptian government, Dr. Ibrahim Ashmawy, deputy minister of internal trade and chairman of Internal Trade Development Authority (ITDA) of Egypt; and Dr. Tarek El-Sebaiy, deputy minister of housing; signed the agreement with Yusuf Ali, chairman of LuLu Group International; in the presence of Mostafa Madbouly, prime minister of Egypt; along with Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali Al-Meselhi, and Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Assem Al-Gazzar, at the Cabinet HQ in Cairo.
“When we started thinking about investing in Egypt, we had a plan to pump only $100 million, but today we finalized plans to invest $500 million to establish a number of hypermarkets and minimarkets, providing 8,000 sustainable jobs for the Egyptians,” said Ali, LuLu Group chairman.
Under the agreement, four projects will be built by the Urban Communities Authority within 12 months, with LuLu Group starting to manage and operate the projects in a period of three to six months from the date of completion of the construction in New Cairo, 6th October City and El-Obour, according to Al-Meselhi, minister of supply and internal trade. This is part of the government’s plan to attract foreign investments, he added.
Apart from this, LuLu is also finalizing plans to set up another six hypermarkets and four minimarkets with other developers from the private sector. LuLu is also in the final stages of discussion with the government to enter the wholesale market for vegetables and fruits and a logistics center to support its retail activities in the country.
At present, LuLu has one hypermarket in the capital city Cairo where it employees more than 500 Egyptians.
With 175 stores operating worldwide, LuLu is the fastest growing retail chain across 10 countries, which include the GCC, India, Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Founded in the early 1990s, it has successfully expanded to different parts of the world, garnering more than 1,600,000 shopping patrons everyday.
LuLu is one of the favorite shopping destinations in Saudi Arabia, where it offers a broad selection of international products. The UAE group is one of the Middle East’s top employers with its work force numbering around 50,000 people.