São Paulo – The Lulu hypermarket, supermarket and department store chain may hold a thematic week for Brazilian products at its units in the United Arab Emirates in 2015. Last week in Abu Dhabi, the company’s retail operations director, Shabu Abdul Majeed, and CEO, Ashraf Ali, welcomed executives from the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) to organize the promotional action.
The meeting was attended by the Arab Chamber Foreign Trade vice president, Rubens Hannun, and international business executive, João Paulo Paixão. Apex-Brasil was represented by its International Business advisor Rafael Gratão.
“The idea with this project is to highlight Brazilian products, including items already sold locally and others Lulu does not carry yet. Exposure of Brazilian items at the stores is timid at best,” Paixão said. The supermarket chain has carried out similar actions with other countries in the past. On the week of the meeting in Abu Dhabi, pizzas and other Italian products were on showcase.
Gratão remarked that there is space available for several types of products in addition to food and beverages. “The promotion may include fashion and shoes,” he said, among other examples. The action can last one to two weeks and should take place in May, a few days prior to the holy month of Muslims, the Ramadan, when sales soar.
During the thematic week, Brazilian culture should also be introduced to the chain’s customers. In addition to Apex-Brasil and the Arab chamber, the Brazilian embassy in the United Arab Emirates may participate in the action. The project will be devised and discussed by the organizers and may include food tastings, among other actions.
Promotional actions such as the one being discussed with the Lulu chain have taken place in other countries. This year, the Arab Chamber has promoted Brazilian products at Kuwait’s Sultan Center chain. According to Apex-Brasil, supermarket chains in Germany, France and the United States have held similar actions.
The Lulu chain has 110 units in Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India, and has opened an office in São Paulo this year to look for business opportunities. It has also established offices in other developing countries such as China.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
