Today's Edition
A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Lulu Retail Holdings reported a gross profit of $1.38 billion for the first nine months of 2025, an increase of 4.5% compared with the same period last year, supported by solid growth in the high-margin fresh food category and a strong performance across core markets.
Total revenue for the nine-month period reached $6 billion, up 4.7% year on year, while EBITDA increased 5.5% to $598 million. Net profit from continuing operations rose 7.5% to $163 million, and profit before tax reached $184 million, highlighting the retailer’s operational resilience in a competitive regional grocery market.
In the third quarter alone, Lulu generated $1.9 billion in revenue, a 2% rise year on year, while gross profit climbed 3.1% to $449 million. The company maintained broadly stable margins, with EBITDA of $180 million and net profit of $36 million for the quarter.
The group continued to expand its retail network, opening six new stores in Q3, bringing the total to 13 new outlets during the first nine months, followed by three more in October. As of 31 October 2025, Lulu operated 260 stores across the GCC — including 112 in the UAE and 62 in Saudi Arabia — and expects to open a total of 20 new stores this year.
E-commerce continued to drive growth, with online sales rising 32.4% in Q3 and 33.6% across 9M 2025, as the company expanded partnerships with aggregators and scaled up its own digital platform. Online orders now represent 6.4% of total retail sales, with order volumes up around 70% so far this year. Loyalty-linked sales reached 71.8% of total revenue, boosted by half a million new loyalty members added during the third quarter.
“Amidst a challenging grocery retail environment, Lulu continues to show resilience as we execute on our growth strategy,” said Saifee Rupawala, Chief Executive Officer of Lulu Retail. “Year-on-year customer count growth of almost 5% demonstrates the strong appetite for Lulu’s value-to-premium offering. Our store rollout programme remains on track, and like-for-like sales are positive in all our countries except Bahrain.”
“As customer preference for online channels continues to grow, Lulu is investing in our e-commerce offering, which is scaling at a rapid rate,” he added. “We are evolving our customer offering with a trend towards smaller stores and a disciplined rollout programme. Combined with internal efficiency measures, the decisions we are taking today will help us continue to be the leading pan-GCC full-line retailer in the years to come.”
Lulu maintained a strong balance sheet, with net debt of $2.6 billion, equivalent to a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.2x (or 1.4x excluding lease liabilities), in line with prior periods.
Founded in 1974, Lulu is the largest pan-GCC full-line retailer, serving more than 690,000 daily shoppers from 130 nationalities across its network of hypermarkets, express and mini-market formats in six GCC countries.
