The management of Carrefour supermarket has pledged to carry on the legacy of its founder Majid Al Futtaim who died on December 17, 2021.
In a statement, Carrefour said it will continue creating outstanding businesses for its customers after the death of its founder.
Al Futtaim is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) billionaire.
‘His legacy lives on in Majid Al Futtaim’s business and culture, which shall continue to create outstanding businesses, innovative brands and exceptional destinations and spaces that incubate happiness for our people and our customers,’ the business empire wrote on its Twitter handle.
Majid Al Futtaim is a UAE-based mall developer that holds Carrefour franchise rights in dozens of countries, including Uganda.
In September 2021, it reached a deal to take over six stores in Uganda from South African retailer Shoprite.
This was after Shoprite said in August 2021 that it would shut down operations in Uganda and Madagascar after currency devaluations, lower commodity prices and high inflation hit household incomes and weighed on earnings.
Carrefour entered the Ugandan market in 2019 and was operating two stores before taking over Shoprite, which had been in the country since 2000.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum prayed to God to have mercy on ‘our brother Majid Al Futtaim’.
He noted that the deceased was a creative businessman and one of Dubai’s most important merchants and senior men whose last decision was to hire 3,000 citizens.
‘May God have mercy on him and place him in his spacious gardens,” Sheikh Al Maktoum prayed.
The cause of the billionaire’s death had not yet been made public by press time.
The deceased founded the Majid Al Futtaim Group in 1992 after splitting the Al Futtaim empire with his cousin Abdulla Al Futtaim.
He studied mechanical engineering at Aligarh Muslim University in India.
Al Futtaim’s showpiece mall, the Mall of the Emirates, is a major attraction in Dubai and is home to the indoor ski slope. It also invested in hotels and movie theaters.
According to Forbes, Al Futtaim’s net worth was US$4 billion (Sh455 billion), in September 2021. Bloomberg put his worth at over $6 billion (Sh682.7 billion).