Centric Software announces that German-based TOM TAILOR GROUP, one of the leading and fastest-growing fashion and lifestyle houses in Europe, has decided to adopt Centric Software's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution to support international growth.
TOM TAILOR GROUP, with a staff of around 7,000 people, is quickly expanding and operates approximately 1,450 own retail stores, 3,000 shop-in-shops and is represented in more than 35 countries. TOM TAILOR has experienced strong growth in the past few years. The TOM TAILOR Brand itself has gone from € 200+ million to more than € 900 million combined revenues in the last five years through organic growth and also the acquisition of Bonita. TOM TAILOR and Bonita offer casual wear, denim and other clothing for men, women and children.
The acquisition of Bonita opened up new opportunities for the Group, reaching a new target group of so called best agers (40years+). Centric was selected to support the company’s key competitive strategy of systematically analyzing and rapidly implementing fashion trends and responding to consumers’ wishes.
“We did our due diligence before deciding on a partnership with Centric,” states Dr. Heiko Schaefer, COO of TOM TAILOR. “Our PLM initiative is fundamental for us to enabling and reaching our strategic goals. So we spent about a year examining the market, talking with existing PLM customers as well as PLM vendors, and combined with our own PLM experience, made the decision for Centric. Their focus on our market, their continued innovation, their reputation with their customers for delivering on their commitments and their consulting team are just some of the reasons that lead us to this decision.”
One impetus for the project was that TOM TAILOR decided that they needed to completely revamp their IT infrastructure. Their previous system counted 74 legacy systems which made internal and external collaboration complex and rigid. “Most people on our team are millennials so they are hungry for innovation and very used to mobile apps and digital technology. Centric 8 PLM fits the bill; it is really easy to use, flexible and allows fast results. Overall it is more aligned with a modern, younger way of working than other traditional systems,” says Frank Pupkes, Head of IT.
Another key decision factor in TOM TAILOR’s choice was Centric’s fashion expertise. “What we like about Centric is that their team knows about fashion. The fact that Centric is 100% fashion-dedicated and that their team, from their CEO to consultants, were available to answer our questions. This made us feel that we were part of the same family,” adds Paul Krüsemann, Manager for Core Applications.
TOM TAILOR will start using Centric 8 PLM across their denim division, before rolling out to casualwear for men, women and children. Future steps will consist in integrating their agents in Asia and their suppliers.
“TOM TAILOR’s strong growth over the last few years is really impressive. I am confident that both our fashion expertise and our Centric 8 PLM solution will help them build best practice foundations to support this growth during their business transformation phase,” summarizes Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric. “We are very honored that they chose us as a partner.”
TOM TAILOR GROUP (http://www.tom-tailor-group.com and http://www.bonita.de)
About TOM TAILOR GROUP (http://www.tom-tailor-group.com)
The Tom Tailor Group is one of the leading and fastest-growing fashion and lifestyle houses in Europe. With its two brands, Tom Tailor and Bonita, the group addresses complementary target groups from 0 to 60 years of age.
With its brands, the Group operates in more than 35 countries. The Bonita brand is available exclusively from the more than 1,000 proprietary retail stores in Europe. Alongside more than 460 centrally located retail stores, the Tom Tailor brand is also sold in the wholesale segment, including around 200 franchise stores, more than 3,000 shop-in-shops and almost 8,400 multi-label stores. Both brands are also available on the internet in an online store, with the Tom Tailor brand now available online in 21 countries. The Company employs around 7,000 staff around the world.
