Nakheel, a Dubai World company, has announced the creation of HyperCorp, a joint venture company with the French retailer Auchan group, one of the world's largest food retailing groups.
A division of Nakheel Retail, HyperCorp aims to develop the Auchan banner across the Gulf with French company Auchan holding 10 per cent of the capital.
The new firm will open first of five hypermarkets located in Nakheel's developments including Dragon Mart, Great Mall of Dubai in International City, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Village and Palm Deira.
Graham Dreverman, Group Managing Director of Nakheel Retail, said: "We will open 15 hypermarkets and 40 supermarkets across the GCC in the coming 10 years and will expand into other quality developers' projects as well as our own."
HyperCorp will further substantiate the firm's contribution to the betterment of the Nakheel communities and other developments across the Gulf.
Hypercorp has appointed Jean Marie Teyssedre as managing director of the new entity.
"We will set new benchmarks for hypermarkets and supermarkets in the region as Auchan is a global leader in the retail industry," said Jean Marie.
Nakheel Retail's focus is to become the dominant player in Dubai's changing retail landscape, providing extraordinary vision and expertise during a period of remarkable growth.
Christophe Dubrulle, chairman of the board of the Auchan Group, said: "We are excited to enter into the Middle East market in partnership with Nakheel. This region offers great opportunities and we are looking forward to working with a company who shares our values when it comes to providing the highest quality of service and positively impacting the daily lives of the people in our communities.
"We have proved in the past our know-how in developing our activity in various countries and our capacity to provide to every consumer the most attractive offer available in terms of prices and choice, and we are confident in the success of this new challenge."
Nakheel Retail is an integrated retail division within Nakheel, operating from four main platforms: Nakheel Retail Shopping Malls, Nakheel Retail Retailcorp, Nakheel Retail Food & Beverage and Nakheel Retail Hypermarkets
Nakheel Retail's focus is to become the dominant player in Dubai's changing retail landscape. Nakheel Retail will also capitalise on expansion opportunities in emerging markets across the region. The Auchan Group is the world's 13th largest food retailing group.
It operates in 12 countries through 1,141 stores and has a workforce of 186,000. The group has 425 hypermarkets in 12 countries.