What’s in store: City’s first hypermarket opens today

Store to open first in Clifton, 4 more locations to follow.

KARACHI: Hyperstar - a Dubai-based chain of hypermarkets - is starting its Karachi operations at Dolmen Mall, Clifton from today (Monday), a much anticipated development that came two years after its first Pakistaani store opened in Lahore.

Owned by Majid Al-Futtaim Group, Hyperstar is retail franchise of Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer after Walmart. The company will kick off its opening ceremony at 2pm on Monday, a company official said, it will be the first hypermarket in Karachi. A retail hypermarket is different from wholesalers such as Makro.

Hyperstar Karachi will be spread over 100,000 plus square feet and display 30,000 products, said Mubashir Jalili, who is the vice president of development at Hyperstar Pakistan.

The store’s selling area is spread over 65,000 square feet while its warehouse is spread over 20,000 square feet. The mall can accommodate 3,000 cars, Jalili said, and a higher number of motorcycles.

In 2009, the company launched its first store in Lahore where it achieved remarkable results - achieving Rs1 billion in revenues in its first year and set to cross Rs3 billion ($35 million) this year, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The company - whose Lahore store alone attracts more than one million customers every month - has already identified four more locations for Karachi and three for Lahore, Jalili said. Hyperstar wants to expand its chain of stores first in Karachi and Lahore then in Islamabad and other metropolitan cities of the country, he added.

MAF group’s second hypermarket in Karachi is under construction at Lucky One Mall near UBL Sports Complex, the site which previously housed the now defunct Fazal Mill.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th,  2011.