Tata Digital has told employees that it will move its headquarters from South Mumbai (SoBo) in the coming weeks, Moneycontrol has learnt. Tata Digital is the arm of the sprawling conglomerate that houses its super app Tata Neu, apart from its acquired consumer internet businesses such as online grocer BigBasket, online pharmacy 1mg and others.
The company will give up its six-floor office in Fort House in the Fort area and move to a three-storied office in One International Centre (OIC) in Lower Parel in Mumbai.
The move is expected to be complete by the end of July.
“Tata Digital’s move to a new and smaller office is estimated to save the company around Rs 2 crore in rent each month or Rs 24 crore each year,” one of the persons cited above said.
For its current office in Fort, Tata Digital pays a monthly rent of around Rs 3 crore. However, its Lower Parel office will have a monthly outgo of about Rs 1 crore, which translates to Rs 2 crore in savings each month, the person added.
Saving crores in rent each month was not the only reason why Tata Digital had picked Lower Parel as the new location for its head office.
Tata Digital’s chief executive officer (CEO) Naveen Tahilyani lives in Lower Parel. The office moving closer to his house would cut travel time considerably, allowing him to spend more time at work.
However, Tata Digital announced the abrupt exit of CEO Tahilyani last week. It is yet to pick his successor. Tata Digital did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.
Mumbai or Bengaluru
While the Mumbai office is the largest unit for Tata Digital, which has over 800 employees in total, the company is flexible about where staffers work from, including a relocation to another city.
That way, fitting in all employees under one roof, especially when the office reduces in size, will not be an issue in the future.
“Tata Digital has given all the techies in Mumbai the option to relocate to Bengaluru. And there have been many takers,” a person aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.
A bulk of Tata Digital’s techies moving to Bengaluru, the tech capital of India, would mean they get to work closely with their chief technology officer (CTO) Vinay Vaidya.
Vaidya was earlier with Amazon and has been based in Bengaluru.
A move to Bengaluru would also mean techies have more job opportunities in the future. Bengaluru is home to some of Tata Digital’s key rivals including Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Zepto and more.
Lock-in period ends
Tata Digital is relocating its headquarters just a year after renewing its lease agreement for another three years.
While the current office’s lease agreement is valid up to April 2027, the lock-in ended only a few weeks ago, in April, which permits Tata Digital to vacate the space without paying a penalty.
Apart from its proximity to Bombay House, headquarters of the Tata Group, Tata Digital’s Fort office is iconic for other reasons, too.
The Fort House is a heritage property and is owned by Dawat-e-Hadiyah, a charitable trust of the Dawoodi Bohra community. The heritage building was earlier owned by the Videocon Group and was their headquarters too.
The building was then acquired by Dawat-e-Hadiyah trust in 2017.
The heritage property has around 1.5 lakh square feet (sqft) of office space.
Fort House is located in the Fort area of South Mumbai, which is an old central business district of Mumbai.
Most of the buildings in Fort are heritage structures dating back to the British Era, some of which include offices of Mumbai Port Trust, Maharashtra Maritime Board, Prince of Wales Seamen's Club, BMC headquarters, among others.
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