Coles Group’s general manager of IT, Conrad Harvey will leave the retailer following a restructure of its store support centre in Melbourne. Harvey confirmed he is leaving the supermarket chain when contacted by CIO on Wednesday morning. Coles said on Wednesday that 378 permanent positions and 60 contractor positions in the centre are no longer required. Fairfax Media, citing unnamed sources, yesterday reported that jobs would be cut across IT and other back-office functions such as payments and accounts. The report said supermarket chain was believed to have plans to outsource its IT department, with some roles sent offshore. Coles said in a statement today that it would not be sending any jobs offshore. There are 160 redeployment positions across the organisation and Coles said it would be working with the affected team members who may wish to move into these roles. Coles said the changes would simplify systems and processes, allowing for a more efficient and productive organisation to support more than 2200 supermarkets, Coles Express and Liquor outlets across Australia. Conrad Harvey was initially hired as a program director for a merchandising systems refresh project, before taking on the role of general manager of IT strategy, architecture and program delivery in 2004. He became IT group general manager across a team of more than 700 staff following Wesfarmers’ acquisition of Coles Group in 2007. He was heavily involved in the transformation under Wesfarmers. In an interview with CIO in July, Harvey said one of his biggest customer achievements over the last five years was deploying automated replenishment, which improved the availability and efficiency of Coles’ supply chain. Coles’ managing director John Durkan said the restructure would lead to a learner store support centre and enable increased investment in Coles’ store network across Australia. “To be a world class retailer, Coles needs to invest further in new stores, in renewing existing stores and in better service and value for our customers,” he said. Coles will spend $1.1 billion on 70 stores across Australia between 2014 and 2016. Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter:@ByronConnolly Related content BrandPost The future of trust—no more playing catch up Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Eric Chien, Director of Security Response, Symantec Enterprise Division, Broadcom Mar 31, 2023 5 mins Security BrandPost TCS gives Blackhawk Network an edge with Microsoft Cloud In this case study, Blackhawk Network’s Cara Renfroe joins Tata Consultancy Services’ Rakesh Kumar and Microsoft’s Nilendu Pattanaik to explain how TCS transformed the gift card company’s customer engagement and global operati By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Cloud Computing IT Leadership BrandPost How TCS pioneered the ‘borderless workspace’ with Microsoft 365 Microsoft’s modern workplace solution proved a perfect fit for improving productivity and collaboration, while maintaining security of systems and data. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Microsoft Cloud Computing BrandPost Supply chain decarbonization: The missing link to net zero By improving the quality of global supply chain data, enterprises can better measure their true carbon footprint and make progress toward a net-zero business ecosystem. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 2 mins Retail Industry Supply Chain Green IT Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe