Catalyst Brands expects to grow the workforce at its Bengaluru global capability centre to about 1,000 people by the end of the year, India Managing Director Nihar Nidhi said on Monday. The planned expansion represents a rise from roughly 650 staff at the start of the year and stems from shifting a larger portion of the company’s global workload to the India hub rather than a net increase across the wider company.
The retail group, which was created through the 2025 merger of U.S. department store chain J.C. Penney and Sparc Group and counts Brooks Brothers, Nautica, Lucky Brand and Aeropostale among its brands, is allocating broader responsibilities to Bengaluru. Those responsibilities include expanded digital operations, creative services and core commercial functions such as planning and allocation.
Nidhi said Bengaluru is also being developed as a testing ground for AI-led initiatives. One example he cited is the automation of product descriptions. He added that productivity improvements generated by AI are being used to redeploy employees into higher-value activities rather than to cut headcount, noting that the retail sector is still in the early stages of adopting such technologies.
While Nidhi did not provide specific figures for investment in the India operation, he said the combination of scale and the quality of AI use cases being developed in Bengaluru is elevating expectations that "Bangalore will lead the agenda" going forward. He indicated this outlook is supported by an ongoing commitment to invest in talent and capabilities.
As part of the reorganization, Catalyst Brands is internalizing customer support operations and moving more work previously handled in South America to Bengaluru. The company is consolidating its global customer care operations in the Indian hub and is hiring aggressively to support that consolidation. Nidhi said the bulk of this transition is expected to be completed over the next two quarters.
The shift in workload and the emphasis on AI pilots reflect a strategy of concentrating domain and technology expertise within a maturing talent ecosystem in India. According to Nidhi, that ecosystem enables the company to handle an increased share of its digital and core business functions from Bengaluru.
Summary
Catalyst Brands will expand its Bengaluru global capability centre to about 1,000 employees by year-end, up from roughly 650 at the start of the year, by moving a greater share of global work to India. Bengaluru will take on wider responsibilities across digital, creative and planning functions and will pilot AI initiatives such as automated product descriptions. The company is also bringing customer support in-house and shifting more operations from South America to Bengaluru, with the transition expected to finish over the next two quarters.
Key points
- Catalyst Brands plans to grow Bengaluru headcount to about 1,000 by year-end, from about 650 earlier in the year.
- Bengaluru will handle expanded digital operations, creative services and planning and allocation, and will pilot AI-led initiatives including automated product descriptions.
- The company is consolidating global customer care in Bengaluru, bringing customer support in-house and moving work from South America, with the transition largely complete in the next two quarters.
Risks and uncertainties
- Investment level uncertainty - Nidhi did not disclose specific investment figures for the Bengaluru centre, leaving the scale and pace of spending unclear.
- Implementation timeline - While the company expects the customer care consolidation to be largely completed over the next two quarters, execution risk remains for completing the transition on schedule.
- Adoption stage of AI - The retail sector is described as being in the early stages of adopting AI, which could affect the scope and timing of productivity gains and redeployment benefits.