More layoffs are anticipated at J.C. Penney.
The Plano, Texas-based retailer is opening a technology center in Bengaluru, India, where it plans to hire 450 people by the end of 2016, for a total of 1,000 employees by 2018, the Times of India reported. The new center will have engineers that assist with internal IT systems and the development of analytics, digital and e-commerce solutions.
“We are looking at India predominantly as a talent play, and not for doing incremental stuff. We are going to replatform, redesign and do cutting-edge work…There will be global roles for people here,” Michael Amend, J.C. Penney’s executive vice president of omnichannel, told the Times.
J.C. Penney spokesman Joey Thomas also said some jobs will be moved from the company’s headquarters to the new tech center. He did not know how many jobs would be affected by this labor change, except for contract workers.
The announcement followed the company’s major layoffs in the past two years. Last year, J.C. Penney laid off 300 workers from its Plano office and also trimmed 2,250 US workers’ jobs. In 2014, 2,000 jobs were also cut at the major retailer. Among these employment changes, J.C. Penney expressed the desire to fulfill consumer demands, establish seamless shopping experiences and stick to its goal to reach $1.2 billion in earnings by 2017.
J.C. Penney partnered up with Lalit Ahuja-backed ANSR Consulting, a GIC (global inhouse center) implementation firm to arrange operations for the new tech center.