Shopping malls in Pakistan are beginning to take shape both within mixed use developments and as stores for international brands.

This is a very recent, but upward, trend in Pakistan and the international services company Deloitte designated Pakistan as an upcoming lucrative market for retailers.

The most prominent operator is Dolmen Group. This family owned enterprise opened the Dolmen mall and office complex at Clifton, Karachi last September.

With profits accruing from the Karachi complex, the plan is to move on to Lahore and then on into other locations in Pakistan with major mall projects.

Dolmen’s two previous shopping center constructions in Karachi are of lesser scale. The Karachi Dolmen Mall covers 550 000 sqft of retail space within a total area of four million sqft built-up space. The cost was 25 billion Pakistani rupees (US$264.77 million).

The complex has 162 stores and a food court with international brand outlets such as Noodle House, PappaRoti and Subway.

The next stage of development will include four commercial towers, a mall and a hotel. The Dolmen Group hopes to tie up with international retailers or major Arabian Gulf retailers for the realisation of these plans.

CEO Nadeem Riaz is optimistic about the future of brand-based and internationalised retail operations in Pakistan.

Even with only 20 per cent of the population being users of international brands there would be more shoppers going for such high-end products in Pakistan than in Dubai.

Riaz says that there were not many international brands in Pakistan previously. He adds that the average number of visitors is about 18,000 on weekdays but can reach 100,000 in the weekends.

“Our strength now is the brands, they are there and ready to move anywhere Dolmen moves.”

GB