January 4th, 2018

Ernsting’s family Becomes a Member of the Centric Family

CAMPBELL, California, January 4, 2018 – Ernsting’s family, a successful supplier of apparel, home and living ranges, selected Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software 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.

Kurt Ernsting, the founder of Ernsting’s family, had the goal of offering high-quality but inexpensive clothing for families when opening his first shop in Westphalia in 1968. Just a few years later, the company evolved into a multi-store retailer with a rapidly growing number of locations. Today, Ernsting’s family has over 1,800 branches with sales of more than €1 billion. The company offers a wide selection of clothing, underwear, accessories, home and lifestyle products as well as toys and fashion for the whole family.

Markus Kramer, Head of Assortment Process and Project Management at Ernsting’s family, explains that the growth of the company was the most important factor when looking for a PLM system.

“In view of our steady growth, we must continually optimize our internal and external processes,” explains Kramer. “We have a large and tight-knit purchasing team and suppliers around the world. Improving communication and collaboration between all stakeholders is therefore essential. We realized that we needed a PLM system for this.”

“The first meeting of Ernsting’s family with Centric Software took place in 2013 at an event organized by Centric. The companies stayed in contact. When Ernsting’s family started the careful selection process a year ago, Centric was among the candidates.”

“After the long and intensive selection process, we became convinced that Centric Software could best meet both our specialist and technical requirements,” explains Kramer. “In addition, Centric specializes in the fashion sector and we knew, that with Centric Software, we would have a partner by our side who is well versed in the specifics of the fashion business. Centric Software shows itself to be a very flexible and technically competent partner. The high level of understanding of our processes and the willingness to meet special program requirements ultimately contributed to our decision.”

Ernsting’s family will use Centric PLM in all departments and product groups. The company expects multi-layered results from the implementation of the software.

“We expect our collection development process to become even more transparent and efficient with the help of Centric 8. The increased process quality, the improved system-supported networking between the departments involved and the avoidance of redundant data maintenance will help us to focus even more intensively on what is important to us-our lovingly designed and perfectly combinable collections”, concludes Kramer.

“We are delighted to welcome Ernsting’s family as our newest German customer,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “The cross-channel provider has grown significantly in recent years and we are proud of the confidence that the company places in us. Centric will accompany and support Ernsting’s family in the next phase of growth. We look forward to a closely collaborating with them as their business moves into the future”

Ernsting’s Family (www.ernstings-family.de)

Ernsting’s family, with approximately 1,800 branches, has a successful online presence and more than 12,000 employees making us one of the largest cross-channel providers in the German textile retail sector. Based in Coesfeld, the company was founded in 1968 by Kurt Ernsting and offers clothing, linen, accessories and home and lifestyle products for the whole family.

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 2016 and Frost & Sullivan’s Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 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.