Thursday, January 6 2005 16:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: British retail chain Tesco today (Jan 6, 2005) said it plans to reach a headcount of 770 people including 400 software professionals at its Hindustan service centre in Bangalore by December this year.

The India centre, the first shared service centre outside Britain, which was officially opened today will develop software for Tesco's IT division in the UK, besides handling back office finance processes of suppliers to the retail giant.

"770 jobs are being created in India, those jobs have transitioned out of UK", Tesco IT Director Philip Clarke told reporters in Bangalore.

Tesco's HSC currently employs 192 professionals including 100 techies building codes for the "Tesco in a box" programme that aims to standardise software across 2,400 stores in the world.

Tesco officials declined comment on the investment made in India centre.

Clarke said the firm out-sources software from UK-based IT firm Xansas which was development centres in Pune, Noida and Chennai and has relationship with IT majors Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services, but indicated that the retail giant would prefer the HSC doing most of the IT work.

"Our preference is that we do it captive and our people should handle the Tesco's IT and application systems", he said, but added, Tesco would continue to work with partners for business continuity.

Tesco has also begun sourcing of leather goods and knitwear from India worth $ 70 million in 2004, and Clarke indicated it would increase by 44 per cent in 2005.

"Last year 90 per cent of the sourcing was knitwear, this year we are looking at leather goods, garments and stainless steel products," he said.