LULU Hypermarkets in Bahrain and all over the region will start going green from November, it was declared yesterday.

LuLu owner Emke Group managing director M A Yusuffali said the company was making a concerted effort to get rid of plastic bags in phases, in a move designed to protect the environment. He was speaking at the opening of the group's second and the largest Bahrain store, in Riffa.

More than 10,000 people turned up at the new store in the few hours after it opened its doors at 10am.

Mr Yusuffali thanked Bahrain's leadership and authorities for their support and co-operation and said the group was investing in the training of Bahraini staff in line with its Bahrainisation goals. "We will see a lot of Bahraini manpower in the group," he said.

"The 300,000 square feet store has been spurred by the success of our first hypermarket in Dana Mall. We are also soon opening a mall in A'Ali which will have another Lulu Hypermarket as the anchor store." Mr Yusuffali said this was the group's 70th store in the Middle East.

"Apart from the regular store sections, the new facility also houses a range of speciality stores like money exchange, jewellery, pharmacy, computer stores, coffee shops, mobile phones and watches counters," he said.

Group regional director Juzer Rupawala said the hypermarket would set several new benchmarks.

"We have in place Bahrain's largest in-store seafood department and our fruit and vegetable section is also the largest in the country," he said.

There will also soon be a multi-cuisine food court featuring well-known names, said Mr Rupawala.