Australia's Coles to shift some corporate roles to Accenture in cost-cutting push

Coles

07/08/2026 06:14

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Coles COL.AX will move some corporate roles to Accenture ACN.N teams at home and abroad as it looks to reduce costs amid intensifying retail competition, Australia's No. 2 grocer said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Friday.

Here are the details:
Coles said it would redeploy the affected team members into other roles across the company as some of its corporate workforce moves to IT consultancyAccenture.
The Australian firm said the move would help cut costs as competition in the retail sector intensifies, including from e-commerce entrants, challenging the dominance of Coles and larger rival Woolworths WOW.AX.
"The changes affect a very small portion of the 115,000 Australians that Coles employs, and does not impact the vast majority of our team who work in-store, in communities across the country," a Coles spokesperson said. 
The Australian Financial Review earlier on Friday reported that Coles was planning to move as many as 1,000 jobs to India as part of a deal with Accenture to redirect focus on its online operations. 
Shares of Coles were down 0.9% as of 0433 GMT, while the broader Australian equity benchmark .AXJO was marginally lower.

 (Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Nikita Maria Jino and Kumar Tanishk; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
 ((Nichiket.Sunil@thomsonreuters.com;))