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Eternal to cut about 250 jobs as it closes Hyderabad support centre
Our read
Eternal's Hyderabad closure becomes a template for leaner, outsourced and AI-assisted support operations, modestly supporting margins but creating a near-term customer-service execution risk.
For operators
Eternal’s closure of its Hyderabad support centre and increased outsourcing signal a sharper cost-and-service model that will require tight quality controls during the transition.
Watch
Quarterly employee-cost, outsourced-services and adjusted EBITDA commentary from Eternal.
The report,
Eternal, parent of Zomato and Blinkit, will shut its Hyderabad customer-support centre and lay off about 250 staff. It is centralising remaining in-house support in Gurugram and outsourcing more functions, offering affected employees four months' severance.
Newer report , , Inc42 : BNP Paribas, Millennium Sell ₹3,265 Cr of Eternal Shares in Block Deals
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Reported figures
From the report. Source details below
| Eternal shares down around 3% to | ₹318.15 |
|---|---|
| 52-week high: | ₹368.45 |
| Potential MSCI-related inflows: | around $650 million |
Also in the report
- Four months' severance offered
- Customer-support model changes underway for around six months
- Stock gained about 31% over six months
Why it matters to operators
Consolidating support in Gurugram while outsourcing more functions indicates Eternal is prioritizing asset-light operating leverage over expanding internal shared-services capacity.
What to watch next
- Customer-service indicators: app-store complaints, social-media escalation volume, refund disputes and reported response times after the closure.
- Any disclosure of additional office closures, centralisation plans or vendor contracts in other functions or cities.
- Management commentary on AI automation, support-ticket deflection and customer-experience metrics.
- Blinkit growth investment intensity and whether cost savings are retained as margin or reinvested aggressively.
- Labour complaints, local political attention or litigation connected to the Hyderabad closure.
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Increase use of third-party customer-support vendors and tighten service-level agreements around resolution time, refunds and escalation rates.
- Deploy more AI-led self-service, chat automation and agent-assist tools to reduce future support-ticket volumes.
- Concentrate retained in-house teams in Gurugram on complex, high-value or safety-sensitive escalations while vendors handle routine contacts.
- Reallocate savings toward Blinkit dark-store growth, customer acquisition, delivery reliability and profitability initiatives.
- Potentially conduct a wider review of corporate overhead and duplicated support functions across Zomato, Blinkit and group operations.
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
The closure may signal that Eternal is prioritizing near-term cost reduction over service quality and organizational resilience. Consolidating support in Gurugram and outsourcing more customer interactions could lengthen resolution times, weaken local-language coverage, and create execution risk during high-demand periods for Zomato and Blinkit. Four months’ severance softens the immediate employee impact but does not eliminate reputational risk or the possibility that lost institutional knowledge raises operating costs elsewhere.
The source
First seen