August 6th, 2025

Åhléns Rolls Out Centric PLM for Compliance and Sustainability Goals

“We are very pleased with the Centric experts; they understood all of our requests and needs. So far, teams say that PLM is easy to use and understand.”

— Stefan Erlandsson

CIO

Swedish multicategory retailer preparing for new EU regulations

CAMPBELL, Calif., August 7, 2025 – Centric Software® is pleased to announce that leading Swedish multicategory retailer, Åhléns, has successfully launched its Centric PLM™ implementation and is on track to meet evolving EU regulatory requirements. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor, home and related goods like cosmetics & personal care as well as multi-category retail to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Established in 1899, Åhléns is one of Sweden’s leading department store chains offering a wide range of fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle products. It has become a household name with 50 stores in Sweden welcoming 60 million visitors, a strong online presence and nearly 3,000 employees. A deep commitment to sustainability, quality and responding to changing customer needs are pillars of its brand DNA.

Åhléns has nine in-house brands and services in beauty, fashion and home décor and also collaborates with well-known external brands. It releases 15–20 in-house collections each season amounting to 30–40 collections annually. The sheer volume and complexity of SKUs, product and material data as well as the incoming updates to EU regulations signaled the need for a single source of truth.

“We need greater control over all data and documents, especially in light of new EU regulations such as DPP (Digital Product Passport) and ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) coming into effect,” says Stefan Erlandsson, CIO at Åhléns. “Having one place for all master data that can be easily updated and accessed through other systems will enable us to control the usage of materials better and support our sustainability goals.”

Åhléns is undergoing a company-wide IT restructuring process implementing more than 10 systems simultaneously, with Centric PLM being the first to go live. Centric’s fashion and multicategory retail expertise, PLM’s single source of truth and sustainability functions were key selling features.

“Our objectives for Centric PLM are to gain control of data and have one way of working across product development departments,” shares Maria Eriksson, Product Manager at Åhléns. “With product data collected in an organized way, it will be much easier to track materials usage and packaging, which is essential to ensure compliance and enhance efficiency.”

Phase one recently launched and a test team of ‘super users’ is rolling out workshops for users in the buying, design, print design and pattern making departments. Despite the enormous volume of data and processes to integrate, the implementation process has been smooth and teams are eager to adopt PLM.

“It feels very good to have a structured way of working across teams. We are on time with the implementation and applying PLM to our in-house brands before rolling it out to retailers carrying external brands,” says Rebecka Johansson, Buyer at Åhléns. “Phase two will involve planning and budgeting.”

Erlandsson reflects on partnering with Centric Software and shares some key factors for a successful implementation.

“We are very pleased with the Centric experts; they understood all of our requests and needs. So far, teams say that PLM is easy to use and understand,” adds Erlandsson. “For a successful implementation, it’s highly recommended to have internal resources dedicated, assign a clear project leader and have internal agreement on attributes and product hierarchy. Documentation is critical, as is taking advice from the experienced Centric team.”

“We are thrilled that Åhléns has selected Centric Software as a PLM partner and officially gone live with the solution,” says Fabrice Canonge, President of Centric Software. “It is an honor to collaborate with one of Sweden’s most prominent multicategory retailers, renowned for its long-standing commitment to sustainability and innovation.”

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About Åhléns (https://www.ahlens.se/om-ahlens)

Åhléns is the natural meeting place, which gives customers added value and inspires new discoveries and meetings, and offers an engaging mix of quality brands in clothing, interior design, children’s items and beauty.

A department store for everyone

The family business Åhléns was founded in 1899 in Insjön and is today one of Sweden’s strongest brands, with 50 department stores in Sweden and e-commerce via åhlens.se.

We offer over 1,000 owned and external brands and services in beauty, fashion and home. Åhléns’ own brands consist of Carin Wester, Wera, Sandö, Rikiki, Å, Åhléns Home, Berså, Aroma and Skir.

Among the services offered in selected department stores are personal shopping, tailoring, shoemaking, hairdressing, beauty care, cafes and restaurants.

Åhléns has a turnover of 4.6 billion SEK and every year our approximately 3,000 skilled employees welcome 60 million visitors. Åhléns Outlet and Design Square is a subsidiary. Åhléns’ main owner and CEO is Ayad Al-Saffar.

Sustainability

Åhléns focuses on sustainability by being responsible and profitable at the same time. By integrating environmental, social and economic aspects into the business strategy, long-term value is created.

Our sustainability work is divided into three main areas where opportunities and risks for the entire chain are managed. The focus areas; Diversity & Inclusion, Climate Change & Impact and Collaboration & Innovation – are the basis for us at Åhléns to create goals and commitments for long-term sustainability, with collaboration as a central part both internally and externally.

Centric Software® (centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides an innovative and AI-enabled product concept-to-commercialization platform for retailers, brands and manufacturers of all sizes. As experts in fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor, home, cosmetics & personal care as well as multi-category retail, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to plan, design, develop, source, comply, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.

Centric PLM™, the leading PLM solution for fashion, outdoor, footwear and private label, optimizes product execution from ideation to development, sourcing and manufacture, realizing up to 50% improvement in productivity and a 60% decrease in time to market.
Centric Planning™ is an innovative, cloud-native, AI solution delivering end-to-end planning capabilities to maximize retail and wholesale business performance, including SKU optimization, resulting in an up to 110% increase in margins.
Centric Pricing & Inventory™ leverages AI to drive margins and boost revenues by up to 18% via price and inventory optimization from pre-season to in-season to season completion.
Centric Market Intelligence™ is an AI-driven platform delivering insights into consumer trends, competitor offers and pricing to boost competitivity and get closer to the consumer, with an up to 12% increase in average initial price point.
Centric Visual Boards™ pivot actionable data in a visual-first orientation to ensure robust, consumer-right assortments and product offers, dramatically decreasing assortment development cycle time.
Centric PXM™, AI-powered product experience management (PXM) encompasses PIM, DAM, content syndication and digital shelf analytics (DSA) to optimize the product commercialization lifecycle resulting in a transformed brand experience. Increase sales channels, boost sell through and drive margins.

Centric Software’s market-driven solutions have the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, appearing regularly in world-leading analyst reports and research.