DUBAI — Two retail giants from the UAE have made it to the world"s top 250 most powerful retailers. International consultancy Deloitte"s "Global Power of Retailing 2021, has ranked the UAE-based Lulu Group and Majid Al Futtaim Holding among the powerful retail brands. Lulu Group — which operates hypermarkets and superstores across 10 countries — posted $7.4 billion revenues in the financial year ending 2019, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 percent. The UAE-headquartered Lulu has 210 stores across GCC, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. While Majid Al Futtaim Holding group revenues reached $9.57 billion, it posted group net retail income of $7.65 billion with CAGR retail revenue of 6.5 percent, reveals Deloitte report. The list is led by US giants with Wal-Mart Stores at No.1 followed by Amazon, Costco Wholesale Corp., Schwarz Group, The Kroger Co. among others. $ 4.85 trillion is the total aggregate retail revenue generated by the Top 250 retailers with 4.4% composite year over year retail revenue growth. Some of the key impact of COVID 19 on leading global retailers as per the report are essential versus non-essential retail, reduced demand, enforced store closure, travels bans etc. On the other hand, online retailers have benefited from consumers aversion to in-store shopping due to the pandemic crisis. However, leading retailers were able to capitalize on the new consumer opportunities presented by the pandemic, particularly online shopping and delivery and were able to continue trading from their stores. Since the start of the pandemic, Lulu group opened 26 new hypermarkets and supermarkets, including 4 e-commerce fulfillment centers across the region. “No doubt these are very challenging times and we had to delay our expansion plans last year due to lock-downs and COVID restrictions, but now we are fully back on track to open 30 new hypermarkets and 10 e-commerce fulfillment centers in the GCC, Egypt and Far East by the end of this year. “Dubai Expo 2020 coupled with fast improving health & safety situation is sure to boost the market sentiments sooner than later,” commented Yusuffali MA, chairman of LuLu Group. — SG