Albertsons on Tuesday named Sunil Gopinath as CEO of Albertsons Companies India, its new global technology and innovation center located in Bengaluru.
Albertsons Cos. India will serve as the grocery company’s global innovation hub, helping the U.S. and Manila, Philippines, teams collaborate on technology solutions and develop proprietary, AI- and data-driven solutions aimed at boosting the customer experience, according to the announcement. The center is run by a subsidiary of Albertsons.
Albertsons said the new center marks a strategic investment in developing scalable technology solutions to fuel the company’s growth.
Gopinath will lead the development of the Bengaluru center, which will onboard workers over the next 18 months. “Bengaluru’s rich talent pool in retail technology and thriving innovation ecosystem make it an ideal location for this journey,” he said.
In July, The Times of India reported that Albertsons employs roughly 300 people in India and is looking to hire nearly 1,000 employees in the next 18 months.
At the start of the year, Albertsons confirmed to BoiseDev that it held corporate layoffs with plans to move some roles to other countries.
Gopinath brings over 25 years of experience in building and scaling global technology operations to the CEO role. Prior to joining Albertsons, Gopinath worked at cash-back shopping platform Rakuten for nearly a decade, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has also worked for Qualcomm, Intel, eBay and Flipkart.
“[Gopinath’s] deep expertise in scaling innovation hubs and leading transformative digital initiatives makes him the ideal leader to shape our Bengaluru global capability center into a powerhouse of retail technology,” Albertsons Chief Technology and Transformation Officer Anuj Dhanda said in a statement.
Establishing a technology center in India is the latest move by Albertsons this year to bolster its operations as the company charts a new future after its failed attempt to merge with Kroger. In February, Albertsons confirmed it was undergoing a division restructuring that included combining its Intermountain and Denver divisions into a new division called the Mountain West Division. In May, Susan Morris took over the CEO role from Vivek Sankaran.
