About 800 jobs for Bahrainis are to be created by Middle East retail giant EMKE Group within two years, it was revealed.

Plans to employ more Bahrainis were unveiled by the group managing director M A Yusuffali, on the eve of the opening of his group's first hypermarket in Bahrain.

Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro will open the BD8 million Lulu Hypermarket at Dana Mall, in Sanabis, at 11am.

The Bahrain outlet is the Lulu Hypermarket chain's first store in Bahrain and the group's 64th hypermarket in the Middle East, Mr Yusuffali said.

The store will be a totally new experience for all the discerning shoppers of Bahrain, he added.

'The 175,000sq/ft hypermarket is one of the biggest hypermarkets in Bahrain,' said Yusuffali.

The Bahrain store has already created 600 jobs, 150 of them for Bahrainis, he revealed.

Fifty Bahrainis have just returned after one-month training at our outlets in Qatar and Oman, said Mr Yusuffali.

'As the group has further expansion plans for Bahrain, more and more local youth can look forward to new opportunities,' he added.

'Work on our second and third hypermarkets in Bahrain have just started in Riffa and A'ali respectively.

'The Lulu Hypermarket in Riffa will be the biggest hypermarket in Bahrain and the second biggest in the Gulf.'

All the three hypermarkets would create a total of 800 jobs for Bahrainis, said Yusuffali.

'Our total investment in Bahrain is estimated at BD50 million,' he said. TradeArabia News Service