March 18th, 2024

Gruppo Montenegro Implements Centric PLM to Accelerate Product Development and Innovation

Italian food and spirits manufacturer partners with Centric Software to streamline operations, centralize product data & optimize the entire product lifecycle

CAMPBELL, Calif., March 19, 2024 – Centric Software®, the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is pleased to announce that Gruppo Montenegro, Italian food and spirits market leader, went live with their Centric PLM™ implementation in 3 months. They have already improved coordination and collaboration between teams with Centric PLM’s single version of the truth. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, price and sell food & beverage and consumer products to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Established in Bologna, Italy in 1885 by a skilled herbalist, Gruppo Montenegro has evolved into a leading Italian spirits and food manufacturer through a culture of uncompromising commitment to quality and innovation. The Group’s brands hold the iconic “Made in Italy” status and their inspirational vision is “Quality of life, any time of the day.”

Today, Gruppo Montenegro boasts over €328 million turnover per year across its separate food and spirits divisions and is the second largest spirit player in Italy. They produce two of the top spirit brands in Italy and possess an iconic portfolio of leading food brands including Bonomelli, Cannamela and Cuore. The Group has just over 380 team members, operates three primary plants and two secondary plants in Italy and distributes products across more than 70 markets in North America and Europe.

“The day I joined Gruppo Montenegro, we decided to adopt a PLM solution,” says Enrico Clerici, Digital Transformation Director at Gruppo Montenegro. “PLM was identified as a strategic initiative that holds immense potential for growth and success.”

Before embarking on their digital transformation journey with Centric PLM, Gruppo Montenegro identified the need to seamlessly connect teams, data and processes to improve transparency and communication. The goals were to reduce the time spent on manual work and searching for data stored in disparate locations. Ultimately Gruppo Montenegro wanted to streamline and accelerate new product development and enhance innovation in product and packaging processes.

“PLM is the most important foundation in the digital transformation process because it encompasses a comprehensive set of process, systems and tools that optimize the entire product lifecycle, from concept to launch,” says Clerici.

The rollout has been smooth to date due to mature innovation processes and by leveraging HORSA, their PLM integration partner.

“We selected Centric PLM for Food and Beverage because it is a modern, user-friendly and scalable PLM. We have had positive feedback from various teams,” shares Clerici. “Despite being in the early stages, we have already achieved improvements in innovation, collaboration and coordination specifically with respect to data security and documentation consistency.”

With Centric PLM, Montenegro’s operations are streamlined and clear project milestones are shared and monitored throughout the new product development process. Collaboration between cross-functional teams has been improved, specifically when defining packaging and labelling briefs, sourcing packaging items, ensuring compliant labelling information and proofing artwork.

Centric PLM is being utilized across 10 departments in six spirit brands and six food brands. Collaborative teams using PLM include Innovation, R&D, Finance, Packaging and Quality.

“PLM is the foundational tool for our ambitious expansion plans to develop new products and categories,” says Clerici. “It helps us leverage talent, increase productivity and makes work easier for our teams — ultimately resulting in increased margins.”

“We are thrilled that Gruppo Montenegro has chosen Centric PLM as the foundation for their product lifecycle process,” says Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software. “It is an honor to be partnered with a leading heritage Italian company on the path of growth and digital transformation.”

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GRUPPO MONTENEGRO (gruppomontenegro.com)

Founded in 1885, Gruppo Montenegro is a leading Italian Food and Spirits manufacturer. The Group’s brands have developed into icons of the “Made in Italy” with strong brand equity and significant top of mind: Amaro Montenegro, Vecchia Romagna, Bonomelli infusions, Infrè decaf tea, Olio Cuore, Cannamela spices, Polenta Valsugana, Pizza Catarì. Their success is the result of constant pursuit of excellence, respect for tradition and attention to product quality and sustainability, all values that have defined the Group since its foundation. Thanks to a solid national and international distribution network, the brands are true ambassadors of the Italian way of life. For more information about the company, please visit gruppomontenegro.com

Centric Software® (https://www.centricsoftware.com/)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides the market-leading AI-enabled Product Lifecycle Management platform for food & beverage manufacturers, grocery and multi-category retailers. As experts in all fast-moving consumer goods, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to design, develop, source, buy, make, package, assort and sell products. Centric solutions optimize the product portfolio, harmonize product offers and streamline product development by speeding time to market and innovation while enhancing quality control and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Centric PLM™ features integrated industry best practices and innovative, AI-enabled capabilities tailored specifically for food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and service providers. Seamlessly manage the overall product lifecycle, from initial concept and formula development to packaging, quality, supplier collaboration, nutritional labeling, production, SKU rationalization and beyond. Results include up to a 50% improvement in productivity and a 60% decrease in time to market.
Centric Visual Boards™ are a visually oriented top-down/bottom-up product portfolio optimization tool. Real-time data and imagery from multiple business systems are brought into a singular accessible workspace, creating a new, visual way of working for all teams to ensure robust, well-balanced global/regional product offers, dramatically decreasing assortment development cycle time.

Centric Software maintains a 100% go-live rate and has received awards for excellence from Just Food, Just Drinks, Business Awards UK, Frost & Sullivan and many other regional accolades. Centric Software is proud to provide the best solutions, backed by the best team and to partner with the best customers.