The UAE-based Lulu Group will mark its first retail push in Indonesia by opening its first hypermarket in the capital city of Jakarta by this year end.

The announcement came during the visit of President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi), to Abu Dhabi. He visited the Lulu Hypermarket at Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi, along with a high-level delegation.

The Indonesian President is on a five-day state visits to three Middle East countries -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

"With an initial investment of $300 million in the first phase, we plan to open 15 hypermarkets by the end of 2017 and a central logistics and warehousing facility in Jakarta. These projects are likely to generate more than 5,000 job opportunities for Indonesians,” said Yusuffali MA, managing director of Lulu Group.

The group expects to invest a total of $500 million in Indonesia over the next five years.

"The fact that we are going to Indonesia with our Halal Hypermarket concept, is giving us the encouragement to look for a wider market segment there,” added Yusuffali.

Apart from Jakarta, Lulu intends to open hypermarkets in Bandung, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

“We also plan to set up contract farming to ensure continuous supply of high quality products and to support the Indonesian agriculture sector,” said Yusuffali.

The Indonesian President was welcomed at the hypermarket by Yusuffali; Saifee Rupawala, CEO; Salim M A, director; Rajmohan Nair, director – Lulu Far East operations, and a large number of Indonesian expatriates.

President Jokowi and the accompanying delegation were taken on a guided tour of the hypermarket by Yusuffali and team who briefed him about specialties of the retail store.

The president later urged Yusuff Ali to export more products from villages and towns in Indonesia.

The Lulu chain currently operates 117 stores across the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and India. -TradeArabia News Service