December 10th, 2018

Anta Leaps into Action with Centric PLM

CAMPBELL, Calif., December 11, 2018 – Anta, the largest sportswear company in China, has selected Centric Software to provide its 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.

Anta Sports Products, Ltd. is the largest sports equipment and apparel company in China and the third largest in the world. Founded in 1994, Anta’s main focus is the design, development, manufacture and marketing of its own ANTA brand sports shoes, clothing and accessories for a range of sports including running, football, basketball, cross training and tennis. In 2017, Anta’s market value exceeded 100 billion Hong Kong dollars (12.75 billion USD).

Anta has ambitious plans to develop its position in the Chinese and international markets over the next ten years and an industry-leading PLM solution is critical to realizing Anta’s ‘single-focus, multi-brand, omni-channel’ business strategy.

“The Anta brand is striding out into the world and can be a truly international brand that attracts customers from all over the globe,” says Zheng Jie, Executive Director and President of Anta Group. “The way we manage products is very important because they are the most direct and close connection between brands and consumers. To meet the needs of consumers, we need to have complete control over our products including planning, design, development, manufacturing and quality control. This requires the support of a professional and powerful PLM platform.”

According to Chen Donghai, Senior Director of the Process and Information Management Center at Anta, the lack of a unified standard information platform to manage collaboration between product and supply chain teams resulted in inefficient internal and external coordination and restricted the development of Anta’s business. Selecting a suitable PLM solution was a high-priority project.

“Choosing a suitable PLM system is one of the largest investments Anta will make in its information management project,” he explains. “After a selection process that considered many vendors, Centric was chosen for its rich experience in the footwear and apparel industries.”

“The vision of the PLM project is to create a platform for standardized operations across the full supply chain of goods, digitize product information and achieve effective data integration, structure, reuse and analysis,” Mr. Chen concludes.

“We are very happy to announce that Anta, the largest sporting goods company in China and the third largest in the world, has chosen Centric as their PLM partner,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “We are excited to work with Anta on their digital transformation and their ambitious growth strategy.”

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Anta Sports (www.anta.com)

Anta Sports Products, Ltd. is a leading sporting goods company in China. It is mainly engaged in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of Anta brand sporting goods, including sports shoes, clothing and accessories. In 2017, Anta Sports’ market value exceeded 100 billion Hong Kong dollars, becoming the third largest sports brand in the world.

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 Global 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.