(Amends headline and text after interviewee corrects planned headcount in India to “approximately 500” from “500 to 550”)
By Praveen Paramasivam and Sai Ishwarbharath B
CHENNAI (Reuters) -U.S. retailer Best Buy is weighing the expansion of its India headcount to primarily add more digital and technology roles, Nithya Subramanian, senior director, data & AI COE, told Reuters.
Best Buy employs around 350 people at its global capability centre in Bengaluru, better known as “India’s Silicon Valley”. That headcount could grow to approximately 500 over the next few months, Subramanian said on the sidelines of an event in Chennai.
Many global companies have been setting up offices or boosting their presence in India to tap its growing talent pool.GCCs have been evolving into high-value innovation hubs from low-cost back offices in recent years. They now support their parent firms in vital functions including operations, finance, and research and development.
“We will be hiring across the functions,” Subramanian said.
Best Buy, known for selling electronic items such as laptops, kitchen appliances and cameras, is looking to hire AI engineers, software engineers and product managers in India, according to its LinkedIn page.
“Even if you look at the global strength, I think we are growing leaps and bounds in India,” Subramanian said, noting that the Bengaluru office is Best Buy’s largest tech hub.
Best Buy operates more than 1,000 stores in the United States and Canada, where it employs over 85,000 people. It does not have retail operations in India.
Another U.S. retailer, Costco Wholesale, is gearing up to open its first India GCC, sources told Reuters last month.
India’s GCC market is expected to reach between $99 billion and $105 billion by 2030, from $64.6 billion in fiscal 2024, a report by industry body Nasscom and consulting firm Zinnov said.
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Sai Ishwarbharath B in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
