LuLu Group, the hypermarket and retail major in the Middle East, Africa and India, with a major presence in Bahrain, has launched their operations in the UK with the inauguration of a logistics and packaging centre under the Y International name.

The new facility in Birmingham was jointly opened by member of parliament Khalid Mahmood and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce chairman Jerry Blackett in the presence of other top officials.

With an initial investment of £20 million ($30.6 million), the new facility will procure and export British products to LuLu's more than 100 retail stores spread across Gulf countries, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The 20,000 sq ft facility will procure and export food, non-food, chilled and frozen products of UK origin in a bid to accelerate and streamline their logistics.

Apart from procurement and consolidation, the facility will initiate necessary value addition by date coding and labelling for different countries, translation of labels including Arabic, halal and other relevant certifications and export from the UK on a regular basis to their supermarkets, hypermarkets and other food service companies all over the GCC countries.

Presently, the group has a great deal of import business from UK, and with the launching of its logistics centre in Birmingham, the turnover is estimated to be increased considerably

"We are delighted to set up Y International in Birmingham and hope that with our long-standing international expertise in running world-class operations in multiple regions. As far as quality standards are concerned, the quality of British products are acclaimed internationally," he stated.

"We are now working closely with Job Centre to identify, train and recruit high calibre, multi-ethnic human resource to support our operations in the UK. At present, there are about 60 Brits employed, which will be increased to 200 in due course of time."

Yusuffali also said that negotiations were in the final stages to acquire a British mineral water unit which is expected to be finalised shortly.-TradeArabia News Service