Australia's Coles will outsource some of its corporate roles to Accenture teams at home and abroad as it looks to reduce costs amid intensifying retail competition, the country's No. Coles said it would also redeploy some team members into other roles across the company. Shares of Coles, however, closed down 0.7%, amid broader weakness among Australian shares on the day, which ended down 0.1%. Last year, UK retailer Marks & Spencer announced plans to launch M&S Food products in Australia in partnership with Coles as it seeks to build a global omnichannel business. The collaboration builds on M&S' food wholesale partnership with Target in the US, the UK retailer said at the time.