Pantaloon Retail outsources IT operations to Wipro

NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani-promoted Pantaloon Retail has outsourced its IT operations to Wipro Infotech for a period five years valued at $50 million (about Rs 200 crore).

The company plans to increase its geographical footprint by opening 2,500 outlets in India over next five years across formats offering a range of private labels, up from 1000 outlets in 50 cities currently.

"Wipro's leadership in technology and service delivery innovation coupled with our innovative strategies will redefine the retail landscape in India. This partnership is valuable to all our stakeholders, including customers and employees," Pantaloon Retail Managing Director Kishore Biyani said in a joint statement.

As per the agreement, Wipro will be responsible for rolling out and managing IT operations across all the outlets of Pantaloon. Wipro will deliver comprehensive infrastructure management and application support services, managed security services and data centre hosting, operations and management services.

Commenting on the tie-up, Wipro Infotech and Global IT Practices President Suresh Vaswani said, "Wipro will deliver IT transformation for Pantaloon by creating scalable and agile operations, which will become the bedrock of geographical expansion and superior customer experience."

Pantloon Retail's formats include Pantaloons, a chain of fashion outlets, Big Bazaar, hypermarket chain, Food Bazaar, Depot, Shoe Factory, Brand Factory, Blue Sky, Fashion Station, aLL, Top 10, mBazaar and Star and Sitara. The company also operates an online portal, futurebazaar.com.