diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 4a46e6ff2a136d5f45df06eb9141bef07ab133b3..45843c77c9c59f316a0504778e9f634a53f74bbd 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ spack:install_compilers:
   script:
     - ci/install_compilers.sh
     - source ci/stack_env.sh
-    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack -e ${environment} config blame compilers
+    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack --color always -e ${environment} config blame compilers
     - ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/ci/update_squashfs.sh
   artifacts:
     reports:
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ spack:concretize:
     - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack -e ${environment}
           config blame | tee config-${environment}-${stack}.log
 
-    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack -e ${environment}
+    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack --color always -e ${environment}
           concretize | tee concretize-${environment}-${stack}.log
 
     - cp ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/spack.lock spack-${environment}-${stack}.lock
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ spack:install:
     - source ci/stack_env.sh
     - echo "{}" > spack-install-${environment}.xml
 
-    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack -e ${environment} install
+    - ${STACK_LOCATION}/spack/bin/spack --color always -e ${environment} install
           --log-file spack-install-${environment}.xml
           --log-format junit
           --only-concrete