UAE-based Lulu Group, which runs the Lulu chain of supermarkets, has been named among the fastest growing retailers in the world over a five-year period.

The company, headed by Yusuffali M.A., and Indian, was ranked 11th in a list of the biggest growing retail businesses published by Deloitte, which also listed the world's 250 biggest names in the sector. Deloitte said the retailer averaged compound annual growth rate of more than 25 percent between 2007-2012.

It added that the group's revenues in 2012 exceeded $4.5 billion. Lulu Group is the only entry in the global 250 list (ranked 197th, in 2013 it stood at 213), which was headed by US giant Wal-Mart whose revenues in 2012 were put at $469 billion, followed by the UK's Tesco.

EMKE Group has said it plans to open 42 new Lulu hypermarkets in the next two years. Yusuffali, who was ranked the 40th richest Indian on the planet with a fortune of $2.2 billion, said despite numbering 104 stores in the Middle East his Abu Dhabi-based company had no signs of slowing down.

It will open seven new hypermarkets in the UAE in 2014-2015, six in Oman, four each in Qatar and Kuwait, three each in Bahrain and Egypt, and 15 in Saudi Arabia.

New markets were also being pursued in Malaysia, Indonesia, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco and Libya. To beef up its retail and exports business, the group was also investing heavily in developing a logistics center and cold storage facility in Kochi.

Deloitte said that despite tough economic conditions, revenues for the world's 250 largest retailers reached $4.3 trillion for the last fiscal year (June 2012 through June 2013).

The average size of the top 250 retailers exceeded $17 billion, according to the 2014 Global Powers of Retailing report from Deloitte.