Lulu Retail Q3 Revenue Rises 2% as Online Sales Jump 53%, but Profit Falls

The Abu Dhabi-listed hypermarket chain earned $36.0 million in the same quarter of 2025, according to MT Newswires, which put third-quarter revenue at $1.94 billion against $1.90 billion a year earlier. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were $175 million.

The results show Gulf grocery spending holding up while shoppers cut back elsewhere. Food sales grew year on year in every month of the quarter, the company said, but non-food categories remained under pressure from weak consumer sentiment, although they performed better than in the second quarter. Lulu said higher input costs, and limited room to pass them on to customers, weighed on gross margins, and that cost controls, including lower costs at existing stores, kept the business profitable.

It also built up inventory to protect supply and keep shelves stocked, a step taken as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted by the US-Iran war.

E-commerce was again the fastest-growing part of the business. Online sales accounted for 9.7% of retail sales in the quarter, up from 8.9% in the second quarter. Sales through Lulu's own app and website more than doubled, outpacing orders through third-party delivery platforms. The redesigned app, which added live order tracking and better search, now has more than one million monthly active users, and the number of stores handling online orders has roughly doubled over the past year.

The company's Happiness loyalty programme reached 10 million members across the GCC during the quarter. Lulu said it would keep investing in digital services, artificial intelligence and supply chain efficiency.

"Revenue growth in Q3 is encouraging and this gives us optimism as we go into Q4 and next year," chief executive Saifee Rupawala said, adding that trading conditions were gradually returning to normal despite continued uncertainty.

Lulu opened five stores in the quarter, two in Saudi Arabia and one each in the UAE, Oman and Kuwait, adding about 18,800 square metres of selling space. That brings openings in the first nine months of 2026 to 22.

For 2027 to 2031, the company expects about a third of new stores to be in the UAE, mainly Abu Dhabi and Dubai, a third in Saudi Arabia and the rest across other GCC markets. More than three-quarters of planned openings will be smaller Express or Mini Market formats, a shift away from the large hypermarkets on which the chain was built.