Colruyt Group expands its footprint in India with a new IT Global Capability Center in Coimbatore
Colruyt Group, the EUR 10.8 billion retail conglomerate employing 33000+ employees active in four countries, opens its second IT Global Capability Center (GCC) in Coimbatore, the first being in Hyderabad. With more than 750 retail stores in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, the Group offers products and services in four areas viz., Food, Non-food, Health & Well-being, and Energy & Mobility, with various complementary brands.
Colruyt Group established its first GCC in Hyderabad in 2007. Over the years their scope of services has gradually expanded in India, from IT services to multiple business units within Colruyt Group.
On July 1st 2024, the Group inaugurated its Coimbatore office in the august presence of the Ambassador of Belgium to India, His Excellency Didier Vanderhasselt, the Chief Guest, the Guest of Honour, octogenarian Padma Shri Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam, Chairman KG Hospital, along with distinguished guest Thiru V. Balakrishnan IPS, City Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore.
Colruyt Group’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) Peter Vanbellingen and MD & Head of Colruyt Group India, Hari Subramanian were joined by Ashok Bakthavathsalam, CMD KGiSL, Arjun Prakash, President Effica Automation, Prasanth Subramanian, Co-Founder Quadra Systems, G. Radhakrishnan, MD Sieger Spintech, Bhaskar Varma, Regional Director NASSCOM for TN & Karnataka, and many other eminent members, business partners from CII, NASSCOM, and, several educational institutions during the inaugural ceremony.
Commenting on the expansion, Hari Subramanian, Managing Director of Colruyt Group India, said, “The opening of our new office in Coimbatore is of strategic importance as this augments our ambition to continuously add value to our Group’s strategic initiatives with a focus on digital enablement and transformation. This decision also accentuates the business sustainability for all our operations from India. Coimbatore’s rich and diverse entrepreneurial culture, a robust engineering hub and a solid educational ecosystem made us this city an ideal investment choice for us.”
Peter Vanbellingen, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Colruyt Group, stated ‘With the opening of a second location in Coimbatore, Colruyt Group is committed to sustainable further growth in India. We believe that we will make this journey in Coimbatore a great success!’
The addition of Coimbatore location underpins Colruyt Group India’s strategy to support the business continuity of the IT operations & services to the Group. The new facility in Coimbatore will see steady/progressive growth over the next few years.
About Colruyt Group India
Colruyt Group India is the IT engineering centre of Colruyt Group with a workforce of 800 full-time employees including 150 consultants. As a technology enabler for the Group, the in-house team of IT Architects, Solution Analysts, and Software and System Engineers set up as global teams work on emerging technologies like IoT, RPA, Computer Vision, Azure, Data Science, Mobile and in Java, MF, QA etc. The teams in India participate and deliver critical projects, thereby actively contributing to the digital transformation journey of Colruyt Group.
Furthermore, the Group has forayed into other verticals such as Retail Trade, i.e. sourcing food products from India, introduction of Colruyt Group’s private label products in the Indian market, and VC investments in India. Korys Investments, Colruyt Group’s family-owned investment structure entered direct & fund investments in India, particularly in agri-food value chain, health, and financial inclusion to support the Indian start-up ecosystem.
