The 89th outlet of LuLu Hypermarket was opened yesterday in Riyadh, the second in the city.

The new store is located in Riyadh Avenue Mall, which is also owned and managed by LuLu's parent company, the Emke Group.

Located in the Murabba area of Riyadh, the outlet houses many other international brands, restaurants, food courts, jewellery and coffee shops.

For Emke Group, which already has two other outlets in the kingdom, this is the first shopping mall in Saudi Arabia.

LuLu Hypermarket, with more than 210,000 square foot of shopping space is the main anchor store and is expected to become a major player in Saudi Arabia's retail sector too. The group is already working on new projects in other parts of the kingdom.

'We are very clear in our approach to expansion,' said LuLu managing director Yusuffali M A.

'Three years back we had finalised our target of reaching 100 stores and we are firmly on track to achieve that.

'I am very confident about the economic situation of Saudi Arabia and have full trust in the visions of King Abdullah and we are fully committed to continue our forwards march.'

LuLu Hypermarkets which employ close to 26,000 people in its various operations, has a very clear human resource development policy especially when it comes to providing training and job opportunities to local youth of respective countries.

LuLu already employs 759 Saudi nationals and also regularly sends them to other countries for better training and growth prospects.

'Providing job opportunities to local youth is one of our core focus areas and we will continue to recruit more nationals into our operations in different categories from frontline sales staff to technical and managerial positions.

'With oil price showing positive growth and recession is a thing of past, we see tremendous development taking place in Gulf economies and we intend to play our part in the growth process,' added Yusuffali.-TradeArabia News Service