US-headquartered retail grocery chain Hy-Vee, Inc, has signed a 10-year lease for a 54,000- square feet office space in Karle Tech Park on the Outer Ring Road around North Bengaluru, the company said in a statement on August 12. The supermarket conglomerate had previously incorporated its global capability center, Helpful Smiles Technology Global, in a 25,000-square feet space in Manyata Tech Park last year.
โHy-Vee’s move to a new space is part of its plan to leverage India’s talent pool for a wide range of technical and non-technical roles, allowing the company to work on projects on a 24/7 basis,โ the company statement underscored.
According to the company, the latest facility can accommodate up to 350 people and has a garden city theme, 17 meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and phone pods. The office also boasts a Lalbagh-themed glasshouse and gaming facilities such as a pool table, TT table, dart boards, foosball, and a very unique punching bag, which add a sense of fun to the office space.
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โWe have built this office space on the theme of Hy-Vee and the garden city, Bengaluru. We have taken the best of our HST, Grimes office and tried to replicate it in India,โ said Lalitha JS, Site Lead, HST Global โ India.
The employee-owned company, known for its over 550 retail business units across the United States, generates nearly $14 billion in annual sales.
“We are excited to see the HST Global team’s growth over the last year and a half and look forward to this new space supporting them as they continue to help move Hy-Vee forward as a retail leader,โ said Travis Hoover, Chief Data Officer at HyVee.
India draws attention from GCCs, Bengaluru premier choice
India has garnered significant traction amongst global capability centres of multinational corporations in recent years. To cite data, between 2022- H1 2024, GCCs leased nearly 53 million square feet across the six markets of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Delhi-NCR.
Market experts credit the ease of hiring talent and lower operational costs in India, compared to global averages, for the feat.
GCCs, also known as global in-house centres or captives, are offshore units of large multinationals performing technology operations.
Also Read: Bengaluru leads office space absorption by global capability centers in India at 4.3 mn sq ft: Report
In the January-June period this year, GCCs accounted for 37% of the total office space absorption across India’s top-six cities. Lo and behold, Bengaluru contributed a notable contribution to this, bagging the title of the most preferred market amongst major cities in India.
Sectoral stakeholders credit Bengaluru’s lead to its dominant talent pool, mature technology ecosystem and thriving start-up landscape. Karnataka’s upcoming GCC policy is expected to further catalyze GCC setups and job creation in the city.
Also Read: Bengaluru leads leasing by Global Capability Centres in India with 40% share between 2022 to H1 2024: Report
Between 2018-2023, Bengaluru witnessed a total of 1,368 office deals by GCCs, 983 of which fell in the sub 50,000 sq ft bracket. Meanwhile 206 deals measured between 50,000 – 1 lakh sq ft and about 179 deals were recorded in the above 1 lakh sq ft category.
