Emke Group, which operates the biggest hypermarket chain in the Middle East under the LuLu and Al Falah brands, is entering the lucrative Indian market by developing the biggest shopping mall in Kochi, in Kerala.

"Work has already started on the project and we expect the mall to open in July 2011," the group’s managing director Yusuff Ali M A told Gulf News.

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Emke Group controls roughly a third of the UAE's organised retail market and is planning to invest 4.3 billion dirhams (INR 57.19 billion) to expand its network of 75 supermarkets and hypermarkets to 100 within the next three years.

The company, which opened its 75th hypermarket this month, serves 350,000 shoppers per day.

The aggressive expansion is expected to boost its market share further. The company, which has a footprint in 15 countries in Asia and Africa with interests in manufacturing, garments, trading and shipping, is also making a foray into Egypt by opening a store later this year and a hypermarket due to open in 2010.

The company's total turnover exceeded 7.6 billion dirhams (INR 101.09 billion) last year, 40 per cent of which came from the UAE. His group employs 21,000 professionals, including more than 14,000 Indians, spread across the Gulf.

A non-resident Indian, Yusuff Ali began his journey from Kerala and first became a small-time trader in the UAE in 1973. His big break came during the retail boom in the 1990s - a time when the UAE's retail sector witnessed a major change, with the traditional groceries and supermarkets yielding place to large neighbourhood stores and hypermarkets.

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