Rite Aid looks to move IT services to India-based company, layoffs possible

Terms of the deal are still being worked out.

• Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
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  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

 Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2017, file photo, a man walks by a Rite Aid pharmacy in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. After two failed buyouts, Rite Aid will shuffle its board of directors and spread out leadership at the top of the drugstore chain. Rite Aid said Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, that three new, independent directors will be nominated to its board, and CEO John Standley will no longer hold the title of chairman. That will go to current board member Bruce Bodaken.

(Harrisburg) — Rite Aid is looking to shift its information technology operations in a move that could result in layoffs for midstate workers.

The East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County-based drugstore chain said in a statement it plans to move IT activities to HCL Technologies, an India-based IT services provider.

Terms of the deal are still being worked out.

Spokesman Chris Savarese declined to comment further.

Rite Aid’s full statement is below:

Rite Aid is focused on ensuring that the company is best positioned to meet the evolving needs of our customers and create value over the long term in a challenging marketplace.  To compete and grow in this environment, we know we must equip our organization with new capabilities that give us the ability to scale with organizational excellence.  After a careful analysis of the IT capabilities needed to best meet this objective, we have decided to move many of our Technology Services operational activities to HCL Technologies, a leading IT services provider, in the coming months.

Rite Aid is continuing to work through key details of the transition.  We expect that associates across these departments will be given the opportunity to interview with HCL Technologies for certain positions. Those who are not hired by HCL Technologies, or who do not wish to interview with the IT services provider will be eligible for the company’s employment separation program.