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NEW DELHI : Consumer researcher NielsenIQ is set to hire over 5,500 people in India by the end of 2023 to ramp up its technology centres, catering to large consumer packaged goods firms and retailers.
NielsenIQ has set up three capability centres and technology hubs in Vadodara, Chennai, and Pune to service its global clientele. The 2,000-seater facility in Chennai is the largest centre for the company in the world. “Between the three hubs, we will be somewhere north of 5,500 people, which would represent 15-20% of our global workforce," said Mohit Kapoor, global chief technology officer, NielsenIQ.
The hires will account for 40% growth in the company’s India workforce. It also has a separate commercial office in India that services domestic fast-moving consumer goods and retail clients.
The Chicago-headquartered firm has operations in 100 markets globally. NielsenIQ provides a host of consumer insights and retail measurement services to its clients. In 2020, NielsenIQ was acquired by affiliates of Advent International and has since been strengthening its digital capabilities. Nielsen operates six capability centres globally. It uses data science, engineering, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to offer analytics services to understand the retail landscape and shopper behaviour.
The pandemic has also prompted companies across the consumer goods ecosystem to focus on and leverage technology. As more shoppers shop across online and offline platforms, companies are looking at measuring and understanding shopper behaviour across channels. Meanwhile, a change in ownership at NielsenIQ has put an emphasis on investment around growth and innovation, said Kapoor.
“Clearly the pandemic has changed the landscape in which every company operates, whether a manufacturer, a retailer or a company like ours. With the change in ownership and structure to become a private entity, which is private equity backed, NielsenIQ certainly has a lot of emphasis on growth and innovation. We also started asking ourselves where do we have gaps in what we need to do to be relevant and innovative," Kapoor said, adding that NielsenIQ acquired 5-6 companies since the change in ownership and could look at partnering with companies to boost capabilities.