LuLu Group to Launch Mega Mall in Vizag, Eyes Major Investment in Andhra Pradesh

LuLu Group is preparing to lay the foundation for an extraordinary shopping mall in Visakhapatnam, generating a maximum of about 5,000-8,000 jobs. It was stated by M.A. Yusuff Ali, the chairman and managing director, at the Investopia-CII meeting in Vijayawada.

Drawing parallels with the success of LuLu Mall in Kochi, which has more than 8,200 staff at present, Ali strongly believes that the proposed mall in Vizag will be a big booster to the economy of the area. “We have confidence that this will engender significant employment and contribute greatly to the local economy,” he said.

The UAE group is in full expansion mode, not only in retail but also across food processing and distribution in Andhra Pradesh. The plans are to build a food processing plant and a LuLu Hypermarket in Vijayawada, together with similar hypermarkets in other cities across the state. The food processing operation would harness the agricultural leanings of Andhra and thereby ensure reliable placements in the supply chain to the group’s 38 food processing facilities around the world.

LuLu Group already sources large quantities of fruits and vegetables from Andhra Pradesh through its global network. To deepen this integration, a new initiative will forge the state to be its focus for the International food supply chain.

These investments form part of LuLu’s bigger agenda of investing in India’s consumer market and developing infrastructure. However, the time frame of project completion goes unmentioned; the hold-up is arguably due to the revised commencement schedule.

The renewed focus of the company in Andhra Pradesh augurs well for the increased investor confidence in the area in terms of its logistics ecosystem, availability of workforce, and raw materials. LuLu Group’s expansion in India is in line with state government efforts to court global players to bolster employment through industrial diversification.