Being a challenge to deal with structural foundations in soft clays, several techniques were promulgated across the world. This paper presents the load–settlement behaviour of soft clay provided with soil-cement columns in test tanks. Based on the experimental work performed on 10% cement mixed single clay column resting on hard stratum simulating end bearing condition, it is revealed that load-carrying capacity of clay bed increased by 3–4 times that of virgin clay. Also, the load-carrying capacity of clay bed increased 5–7 times that of virgin clay with the group of three columns arranged in triangular pattern with centre to centre spacing of two times the diameter of column. Group capacity of soil-cement column is 1.5–2 times of single column which is not multiplicative of single column. UCC tests were carried to find out the optimum fibre content by varying the fibre content from 0 to 3%. From UCC test, it is observed that 2% fibre content is suitable for the present study considering the strength improvement and ease of mixing. It is observed from the tests that with the addition of 2% fibre in soil-cement column, load-carrying capacity of clay bed increased by 5.5–7.5 times when tested with group of columns. There is 10–20% increase in ultimate load-carrying capacity of soil-cement column after addition of fibre and the mode of failure of columns changed from brittle to bulging failure. © 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.