28 January, 2019

La Chapelle Kickstarts Digital Transformation with Centric PLM

CAMPBELL, Calif., January 29, 2019 – Shanghai La Chapelle Fashion Co. Ltd. (La Chapelle), the Chinese fashion company, has successfully implemented Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

La Chapelle was founded in 1998 and is a fast fashion specialist with an expanding network of approximately 10,000 directly-operated stores across China. The company, which emphasizes the in-store customer experience, is pursuing a multi-brand strategy and includes labels La Chapelle, Puella, 7.modifier, La Babité, Candie’s, JACK WALK, Pote, MARC ECKŌ, UlifeStyle and 8em. In 2018, La Chapelle acquired French brand Naf Naf. La Chapelle has grown rapidly and reported revenues of 1.3 billion USD (9 billion yuan) at the end of 2017.

Competing with a wave of new fast fashion and retail businesses in China, the traditional apparel retail industry is facing the challenge of digital transformation. La Chapelle committed to deploying an efficient data platform to drive the brand’s rapid development. After a search for a suitable PLM solution, La Chapelle selected Centric PLM as part of a strategy to reform the company’s business model, strengthen internal and external communication and improve the efficiency of human and financial resources.

“We have an innate desire for innovative development at La Chapelle, which has empowered our brands to take this most important step in their digital transformation,” explains Mr. Yu Qiang, Co-CEO of La Chapelle. “After a careful deliberation and selection process, we decided to partner with Centric in our development journey.”

Mr. Zhao Qi, Deputy General Manager of La Chapelle’s Information Division, adds, “We have always hoped to help the company with a set of more advanced tools addressing all stages of a product ranging from financial planning to final operations management in order to support our digital operations and raise our efficiency. This was why we chose to implement PLM.”

La Chapelle kicked off its implementation of Centric 8 PLM for users at the 7.modifier brand and went live on the system in less than three months.

As Ms. Liu Ya, General Manager of the 7.modifier Business Division, says, “During the implementation we encouraged our team members to develop the habit of using PLM, so we can optimize the system using their feedback. We hope that Centric PLM will help standardize our workflow, enable us to share information and control our progress.”

“With the launch of PLM for 7.modifier and our experience from subsequent use of PLM, we hope to implement PLM across our other brands,” she concludes, “We also aim to promote PLM for our external suppliers, once our internal teams are familiar with the system.”

“We are happy to announce that La Chapelle has successfully gone live with Centric 8 PLM,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “La Chapelle selected Centric PLM to support their multi-brand business model and provide a digital platform for the company’s continuing growth and expansion. The implementation of Centric PLM for the 7.modifier brand is part of a comprehensive digital transformation that will power their business strategy for years to come.”

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La Chapelle (www.lachapelle.cn)

Shanghai La Chapelle Fashion Co., Ltd., established in 1998, is a fast-growing enterprise with multi-brand fashion operations. The company is mainly engaged in design, brand marketing and the sale of apparel products with a focus on mass-market ladies’ casual apparel. La Chapelle has always been one of the pioneers and leaders among ladies’ apparel brands in China, and has become a fast-growing group with multi-brand fashion operations. The company owns 12 brands itself and also invests in 12 other brands, with almost 10,000 retail stores across the country.

Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) is a visual, fully digital collection of boards for touch-based devices like iPad, iPhone and large-scale, touch-screen televisions. Centric VIP transforms decision making and automates execution to truly collapse time to market and distance to trend. Centric’s flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality, and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM in 2018 and Frost & Sullivan’s Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2016 and 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.