Centric Software®, the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is pleased to announce that Reyn Spooner, the Hawaiian shirt company, has selected Centric PLM® for their business. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, consumer electronics, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Founded in 1956 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Reyn Spooner is the maker of classic Aloha shirts, swimwear, accessories, men’s, kids’ and women’s clothing. The company also licenses sports team clothing from entities like MLB and NCAA. With its flagship retail store in Honolulu and others on different Hawaiian Islands, the apparel is also sold wholesale, and via Reyn Spooner’s e-commerce site.
The company is looking to shore up its digital foundation. VP of Marketing and Merchandising at Reyn Spooner, Jeff Emmons says, “Much of our data management is in Excel. There is currently no central source of truth for product, no one location for anyone to go to see what’s going on. We have data in ERP, but not everyone has access. So, the production team does their part and works with the vendors and materials—that information is stored somewhere. The design team works on prints, fabrics, colorways and stores their information someplace else.”
The production team went to Emmons with a request for a solution to manage product development and the 1000s of active SKUs the company manufactures. Having joined the company in mid-2022, Emmons says, “One of my primary responsibilities is to try to put some structure in place, to get some organization, to create the central source of truth, to put systems in place that will allow us to better manage the business. PLM was the natural starting point to help with the design and production process of development.”
The search for PLM vendors turned up many offerings. The selection was narrowed down to those that had expertise in fashion. Emmons cites reasons for choosing Centric PLM. “I love the interface which is very user friendly. Our team is familiar with tables and then you can export information into tables, so it feels somewhat familiar. That was a large driver of it.” The Centric team also instilled confidence. Says Emmons, “[Our account manager] was very responsive and so knowledgeable. And when he couldn’t answer a question, he immediately brought in people that could.” Another factor in the decision was the value that the small to medium businesses (SMB) option brings. “We’re getting decades of experience and knowledge, great software, but at a fraction of the cost. It also gets us up and running relatively quickly, which is what we need.”
Implementation is currently underway. The expected benefits include better collaboration among teams, more successful launches of seasons, and to give the sales department tools to help them with the selling process. Emmons says, “Sales can create line sheets for themselves. They can pull the assets, the CADs and other information into a document to share with customers.” Having one digital location to check where a product is in the development process is another benefit. “We can see that the reason an item is delayed is because it hasn’t got the approval from the vendor. Working under such a tight timeline, a week or two can really affect the production calendar. And so, having visibility to these things allows us to stay on top of it to make sure that we’re following up when needed,” Emmons explains. The vendor portal and ERP integration are also on the docket for activation.
President and CEO of Centric Software, Chris Groves says, “It is an honor to be chosen by the iconic apparel company, Reyn Spooner, whose shirts have withstood the test of time. We are happy to be a part of their future success and are looking forward to our continued association. We can’t wait to see what the company does next.”
