After Split, Walmart And Bharti Retail Issue Pink Slips To Employees

In 2006, Bharti Retail and Walmart Stores had joined hands promising to create thousands of direct jobs in India.

Seven years later, the two former partners are retrenching employees and the Indian company is preparing to shutter some unviable Easyday stores, as they restructure their operations following a split two months ago.

According to three persons familiar with the development, Bharti has issued pink slips to over 100 employees. Bharti Retail and its holding company Cedar Support Services employed 330 people in their corporate offices and this number has now come down to 220 after the recent cull.

One executive who lost his job told ET that termination notices were handed over by Bharti Retail’s HR Vice-President Sandeep Gautam last week. In addition to three months wages, the sacked employees have been given 15 days salary for each year they worked with the company.

In October, while announcing the separation from Walmart, Bharti Enterprises Vice-Chairman Rajan Mittal had said there would be no job losses and the company would retain employees. “People were hopeful after Mittal’s assurance, but it turns out we were kept in the dark,” said a sacked employee, who did not wish to be named.

The biggest hit was taken by Cedar Support Services, the controversial holding company of Bharti Retail in which Walmart had invested $100 million at a time India banned any foreign capital in multi-brand retail. Almost 60% of Cedar’s employees, including senior vice-presidents of facilities and logistics and the GM for facilities and HR were handed pink slips, according to the people quoted above.

“Cedar Support Services provided real estate advisory, facilities management, design and construction and other services to both cash & carry and front-end retail businesses. Following the restructuring of operations, wherein the cash & carry business was acquired by Walmart, the roles of some employees, including those supporting the cash & carry business at Cedar, have become surplus to our requirements,” said a Bharti spokesperson in an emailed reply.

Almost a dozen jobs at Bharti Retail were made redundant in operations while out of the 24 employees in marketing, only half-a-dozen have been retained. Nandini Sethuraman, the company’s marketing head, is moving to Walmart, while some employees are returning to group companies.

As a result of this downsizing, Bharti Retail will vacate its two-floor office at Centrum Plaza on the Golf Course Road in Gurgaon and shift to Bharti Airtel’s office in Gurgaon by January 27.

While announcing its entry in the front-end retail sector in 2008, Bharti Retail had said it planned to invest up to $2.5 billion by 2015, and employ about 60,000 people. As of last count, the company employed around 5,500-6,000 employees.

Bharti Retail’s former partner, Walmart, too is laying off around 50 employees, said sources. The company spokesperson did not confirm the figure but conceded the cash & carry company was “letting go of some of our talent”. 

“Given the evolution of our business profile in India, some difficult decisions have to be made that include letting go of some of our talent. We will assist our associates through this transition with the appropriate resources,” said the Walmart spokesperson.

But the Bentonville-headquartered company has also given retention bonuses of $150,000-200,000 each to around six executives, said persons familiar with the development. Cash & carry business head Arvind Mediratta and HR head Riju Vashisht have been shifted to Walmart’s Canadian and US operations, respectively.

“Walmart is committed to India and the market. We are pleased with our established and successful cash & carry business and plan to grow that business. We remain steadfast in our belief in the important value Walmart brings to India, including social and environmental benefits,” the Walmart spokesperson said.

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