Lulu logistics hub opens in Birmingham

Lulu Group, the hypermarket and retail major in the Middle East, Africa and India launched their operations in the UK with the inauguration of state-of-art Logistics and packaging center under Y International (UK) Ltd. at Birmingham.
Khalid Mahmood, member of Parliament of Birmingham and Jerry Blackett, chairman of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, inaugurated the facility.
Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham Airport, members of Birmingham city council, representatives from the business community, Yusuff Ali MA, managing director of Lulu Group, Ashraf Ali MA, executive director, Althaf MM, director of Y International, Tony Perks, Operations Director were also present on the occasion.
With an initial investment of 20 million GBP (INR 1.6 billion, SR 110 million), the new facility will procure and export British products to Lulu’s more than 100 retail stores spread across Gulf countries.
The 20,000 sq. ft. facility will procure and export food, non-food, chilled and frozen products of UK origin in a bid to accelerate and streamline their logistics.
Apart from procurement and consolidation, the state of the art facility will initiate necessary value addition by date coding and labeling for different countries, translation of labels including Arabic, halal and other relevant certifications and export from the UK on a regular basis to their supermarkets, hypermarkets and other food service companies all over the GCC countries.
They also have a plan to source goods directly from major manufacturers.
Currently, the group has a great deal of import business from UK, and with the launching of its Logistics Center in Birmingham the turnover is estimated to be increased considerably.
The new facility is located at Junction 6 industrial estate at the Electric Avenue, Aston.
This will be one stop facility for the hypermarket chain for handling its logistics.
The ideal objective of the group is to set new benchmarks in the retail operations by tapping new opportunities, widening the network, expanding the range, innovating new promotion strategies and ultimately improving the service standards to the customers by providing the best quality merchandise from across the world.
Yusuff Ali MA, managing director of Lulu group said, “We are delighted to set up Y International in Birmingham and hope that with our long standing international expertise in running world class operations in multiple regions, I am sure we will be able to add more value to the various related businesses operating here.”
Yusuff Ali said: “As far as quality standards are concerned, needless to mention the high quality of British products are acclaimed internationally. We are now working closely with Job Center to identify, train and recruit high caliber, multi-ethnic human resource to support our operations in the UK. At present, there are about 60 Britons employed, which will be increased to 200 in due course of time.”
Yusuff Ali also said negotiations are in the final stages to acquire British mineral water unit which is expected to be finalized shortly.
Lulu Group is owned by non-resident Indian businessman Yusuff Ali MA based in the UAE.
He is also named as the most powerful Indian businessman in the Gulf and also been ranked by Forbes in the billionaire club of the world.
Currently, it operates 105 hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores in the GCC, Yemen, Egypt and India.
Audit research firm Deloite has recently ranked Lulu group as world’s 9th fastest growing retailer amongst 50 around the world.
The group is also exploring new growth opportunities in Egypt, Iraq and countries in the Far East especially in Malaysia and Indonesia.