The retail giant’s Lulu Group to invest Rs 3,500 cr in Tamil Nadu. The group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Tamil Nadu during a function held in Abu Dhabi. The agreement was signed between Pooja Kulkarni, MD and CEO of Guidance Tamil Nadu and M A Ashraf Ali, Executive Director of Lulu Group in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin at the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce Head Office.

Chennai will have the first project as per the MoU by 2024. Lulu Group will come up with a shopping mall in the capital city while the first hypermarket is expected to open this year-end itself in Coimbatore at the Laxmi Mills compound. The Lulu Group will also set up food processing and logistics centres for procuring and processing agri-produce for exports to Middle Eastern countries. A high-level delegation from Lulu will soon visit the state to finalise locations and related formalities.

”State of Tamil Nadu provides excellent infrastructure and support to the investors and we are very happy to explore bigger investment opportunities not only in Chennai but also in tier two cities such as Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai, Trichy. ”Our aim is to provide more than 15,000 direct and indirect job opportunities to Tamil youth in the next 3 years,” Yusuff Ali said.

Chennai will have the fifth mall from the retail chain. They have malls in Kochi, Trivandrum and Bengaluru respectively. Its fourth mall is expected to be opened in Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh by end of May this year.

Lulu currently operates more than 225 hypermarkets and shopping malls in the Middle East, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and India. The group employs over 57,000 people globally. Lulu hypermarkets and department stores have a 32 per cent share of the retail market in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, a press release from the group informed.