German sports footwear and apparel brand, Adidas plans to set up its first Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Chennai. Spanning over 45,000 sqft and occupying 700 seats, this facility will be located in Smartworks managed Olympia Pinnacle on Old Mamallapuram Road. Adidas’s GCCs are situated in Porto (Portugal), Dalian (China), Bogota (Columbia) and North America. This marks the company’s first centre in Asia outside of China. The centre will be headed by by Akhil Kapoor, Vice President of GBS Global Procurement and Head of GBS in India, and focus on functions such as planning and analysis, invoice-to-cash, record-to-report and source-to-pay in India.
This investment marks Chennai’s fast pace in turning to a GCC hub. While Bengaluru hosts majority of GCCs, Chennai accounts for approximately 9 per cent. In FY24, Chennai leased 3.5 million sq. ft. of GCCs compared to over 9 million sq. ft. in Bengaluru and over 5 million sq. ft. in Hyderabad.