LONDON: Retail giant LuLu Group International, headquartered in the UAE capital, has confirmed it is investing £15 million ($22 million) in a new 124,000 sq ft European headquarters in Birmingham’s Advanced Manufacturing Hub (AMH), with the creation of 80 jobs.
Through its UK-based subsidiary, Y International, LuLu Group will process, package and export 10,000 different products from the Midlands to more than 160 hypermarkets across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Far East.
Y International works with a wide range of businesses, transporting UK products 3,000 miles to the Gulf and beyond.
Its suppliers include Lovemore, a gluten-free, baked goods company from Aberdare, Wales; Somerset-based The Traditional Free Range Egg Company and Mission Foods, which produces flatbreads in Coventry.
LuLu Group’s portfolio includes hypermarkets, shopping malls, trading, shipping, IT, travel & tourism and education. The company has an annual turnover of more than US $6.9 billion (£5.2 billion).
Tony Perks, director of operations at Y International UK, said: “When comparing potential locations, Birmingham offered a cost-effective and well-connected location, as well as readily-available, high quality space, making our decision easy.
“The acquisition of the land gives Y International the opportunity to construct a large purpose-built production facility. This will enable the company to increase sales and is expected to result in an increase in staff from the existing 160 to 240, all recruited from the local area.”
Y International is expected to move from its current base to the new larger base in around 12 months’ time.
Charles Spicer, a director at Savills, real estate agents that helped to broker the deal, told Arab News: “Birmingham has a ready supply of developable land. The regenerated site is close to the old site, which means employees can still walk to their jobs and Y International has access to a good supply of labor.”
He added: “At 20,000 feet, the new building will be nearly six-times larger… a sizeable increase in space and investment and indicates large scale growth plans for LuLu.”
Rabia Yasmeen, analyst at research firm Euromonitor, said: “LuLu Group’s move to establish a distribution center in Birmingham has been a long-standing plan for the retailer — the company announced similar plans in 2013 when it wanted to export British branded foods to the Middle East. With the size of the investment increasing significantly since then, the current move shows the group is planning a wider strategic move.”
Yasmeen added that LuLu Group has been following active expansion plans within the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as India and Malaysia.
The Euromonitor analyst said: “UK operations are aimed at expanding operational base for food processing, packaging and export to other regions where the retailer is already present; however the group is also reported to have recently acquired the (luxury hotel) Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh — The Caledonian in Scotland, which is also an indicative of active investment by the group in the region and wider European operations.”
Abu Dhabi’s LuLu invests $22 million in new Birmingham hub
Abu Dhabi’s LuLu invests $22 million in new Birmingham hub
Philippines eyes closer cooperation on advanced defense tech with UAE
- Philippine-UAE defense agreement is Manila’s first with a Gulf country
- Philippines says new deal will also help modernize the Philippine military
MANILA: The Philippines is seeking stronger cooperation with the UAE on advanced defense technologies under their new defense pact — its first such deal with a Gulf country — the Department of National Defense said on Friday.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation was signed during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this week, which also saw the Philippines and the UAE signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, marking Manila’s first free trade pact with a Middle Eastern nation.
The Philippines-UAE defense agreement “seeks to deepen cooperation on advanced defense technologies and strengthen the security relations” between the two countries, DND spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.
The MoU “will serve as a platform for collaboration on unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare, and naval systems, in line with the ongoing capability development and modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he added.
It is also expected to further military relations through education and training, intelligence and security sharing, and cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, maritime security, and peacekeeping operations.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described security and defense as “very promising fields” in Philippine-UAE ties, pointing to Abu Dhabi being the location of Manila’s first defense attache office in the Middle East.
The UAE is the latest in a growing list of countries with defense and security deals with the Philippines, which also signed a new defense pact with Japan this week.
“I would argue that this is more significant than it looks on first read, precisely because it’s the Philippines’ first formal defense cooperation agreement with a Gulf state. It signals diversification,” Rikard Jalkebro, associate professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, told Arab News.
“Manila is widening its security partnerships beyond its traditional circles at a time when strategic pressure is rising in the South China Sea, and the global security environment is (volatile) across regions.”
Though the MoU is not an alliance and does not create mutual defense obligations, it provides a “framework for the practical stuff that matters,” including access, training pathways, procurement discussions and structured channels” for security cooperation, he added.
“For the UAE, the timing also makes sense, seeing that Abu Dhabi is no longer only a defense buyer; it’s increasingly a producer and exporter, particularly in areas like UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and enabling technologies. That opens a new lane for Manila to explore capability-building, technology transfer, and industry-to-industry links,” Jalkebro said.
The defense deal also matters geopolitically, as events in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region have ripple effects on global stability and commerce.
“So, a Philippines–UAE defense framework can be read as a pragmatic hedge, strengthening resilience and options without formally taking sides,” Jalkebro said.
