Coles, the Australian supermarket giant, is reportedly planning to offshore hundreds of corporate jobs to India as part of a major cost-cutting and outsourcing drive. The move would see a significant number of Australian head-office staff made redundant, reflecting a wider trend among large retailers of shifting corporate functions to lower-cost overseas locations to reduce operating expenses.

The scale of the redundancies is described as running into the hundreds, though the specific departments affected and the timeline for the transition were not detailed in the available report. The decision underscores the pressure Australian retailers face to cut costs amid a challenging economic environment, with outsourcing to India increasingly used as a way to maintain services while lowering overheads.