MUSCAT— Lulu has delivered revenue growth across all segments in Q1 2025, with particularly strong performances in Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a report said.
The United Arab Emirates, Lulu’s largest market, recorded a mid-single digit revenue increase of 5.2 percent year on year, led by particularly strong performance in the fresh food segment, which grew 15.6 percent year on year. This was further supported by strong e-commerce sales in the UAE which saw robust growth, rising 40.1 percent YoY, supported by an increase in sales through aggregators. In the KSA, revenue rose by 10.3 percent YoY, primarily driven by new store openings in the last 12 months and strong LFL growth, the report added.
Solid results
The Oman market delivered solid results for Lulu in Q1 2025. During this period, the revenue in Oman increased by 7.8 percent YoY as a result of strong growth in the electrical goods product category. Qatar went up by 6.7 percent YoY following a good trading period during festive season, and Kuwait up 4.8 percent YoY, with supermarket sales contributing c.50 percent of overall growth in the region, further supported by a strong uptick in e-commerce sales. Lulu Retail Holdings PLC, the largest and fastest growing pan GCC full line retailer, unveiled these details when it announced its financial results for the three-month period ended 31 March 2025 (“Q1 2025”).
Good growth in Q1
Saifee Rupawala, chief executive officer of Lulu, commented that they have demonstrated good growth in the first quarter of this year, with revenue up 7.3 percent YoY. “This was underpinned by a combination of like-for-like sales growth, supported by strong trading during the Ramadan period, and our store rollout programme, which remains well on track with five stores opened in the quarter, in line with our plan to rollout a total of 20 stores in 2025. The first quarter also saw Lulu make good progress on delivering on our overall growth strategy, supported by robust sales in private label and e-commerce, which remain key components of our strategy,” he said.
Growth momentum to continue
“Looking ahead, we expect our growth momentum to continue as we remain focused on several initiatives under each of our four key pillars, including driving growth in existing store networks, opening new stores, driving operational efficiencies and delivering further upside through our private label and e-commerce offerings. Overall, we are pleased with the performance in the first quarter, marking a good start to 2025, and we look forward to continuing to deliver on our strategy throughout the rest of the year.”
Q1 2025 revenue of $2.1 billion
Revenue grew a healthy 7.3 percent YoY to $2.1 billion in Q1 2025 driven by LFL sales growth of 3.6 percent, supported by strong trading during the Ramadan period. The good revenue performance was also driven by new store openings and high-volume growth across certain product categories, particularly in fresh food and lifestyle products. Fresh food category revenue grew 7.9 percent YoY in the first quarter, driven by the Ramadan period, improved consumption trends. Electrical goods category witnessed revenue growth of 29.0 percent YoY, mainly due to an increase in sales across higher value items. Lifestyle products grew 6.9 percent YoY despite pressure as customers opted for more value products. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sales grew steadily at 1.4 percent YoY, with the sales increase mainly driven by strong volume growth, which was partly offset by some pricing pressure as a result of promotional campaigns. E-commerce remains an important component of Lulu’s growth strategy, with sales +25.3 percent YoY and customer count +26.1 percent YoY.
Five new stores
Lulu continues to make good progress on delivering on its growth strategy, having rolled out five new stores in the period, delivered good LFL growth within its existing stores and also benefiting from further upside opportunities across private label and e-commerce sales.
22339sqm space during Q1
During Q1 2025, Lulu opened two hypermarkets and three express stores, adding 22,339 sqm of retail space in the period, with the company’s total retail space up two percent to 1.34 million sqm, as at the end of Q1 2025. Within this, Lulu opened a 10k+ sqm hypermarket in Makkah and an express store in Madinah, two uniquely located stores with high footfall given the proximity to religious landmark cities in KSA. In addition to the two stores in KSA, Lulu also opened two express stores in the UAE, alongside a hypermarket in Bahrain. Lulu remains on track with its store roll out plans, with the company expanding to open a total of 20 stores in 2025, with the remaining 15 stores expected to open over the course of the year.
MoU with Awqaf Dubai
Meanwhile, Lulu has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Endowment and Minors Trust Foundation (Awqaf Dubai) for the development of a group of retail stores as part of Dubai’s endowment projects. Under the partnership, Lulu will collaborate with Awqaf Dubai on upcoming community projects to develop shopping facilities that will better serve and enhance the retail experience of residents and visitors, while also contributing to Awqaf’s broader social and economic objectives.
Happiness Loyalty programme
Following the successful roll out of its loyalty programme across all regions in 2024, Lulu’s Happiness Loyalty programme continues to see good momentum in new members, having added c.904k new members in Q1 2025. Lulu now has a total of c.6.3 million loyalty members enrolled onto the programme compared to the c.5.5 million at the end of 2024, with the loyalty programme linked to c.65 percent of sales.
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