Australia's Coles to outsource some roles to Accenture in cost-cutting plan (updated)

Woolworths

07/08/2026 08:37

Adds closing share moves, analyst comments
By Nichiket  Sunil and Kumar Tanishk
Aug 7 (Reuters) - Australia's Coles COL.AX will outsource some of its corporate roles to Accenture ACN.N teams at home and abroad as it looks to reduce costs amid intensifying retail competition, the country's No. 2 grocer said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Friday.
     
Here are the details:
Coles said it would also redeploy some team members into other roles across the company. 
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.
"Expect more of the same: large Australian corporates are converging on the same model: global partners, offshore delivery, AI-enabled back offices," said David Tuckwell, chief investment officer at ETF Shares.
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.
"The changes affect a very small portion of the 115,000 Australians that Coles employs, and do not impact the vast majority of our team who work in-store, in communities across the country," a Coles spokesperson said.
Shares of Coles, however, closed down 0.7%, amid broader weakness among Australian shares .AXJO on the day, which ended down 0.1%.

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
((Nichiket.Sunil@thomsonreuters.com;))