October 19th, 2020

Manifattura Valcismon Reaches Peak Performance with Centric PLM

CAMPBELL, California, October 20, 2020 – Centric Software is delighted to announce the release of a success story about its customer, Manifattura Valcismon.

Italian technical sportswear specialist Manifattura Valcismon, has experienced incredible results with Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury, consumer goods and home décor companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

A family-owned company, currently operated by their third generation, Manifattura Valcismon was created by Olindo Cremonese in 1946 in Fonzaso, near Belluno, Italy, as a wool spinning business. In the late 1970’s, under the guidance of Giordano Cremonese, a sports fanatic and an expert cross-country skier, the company began to manufacture technical sportswear, launching the Sportful brand. In 2003, the acquisition of the Castelli brand was the first step towards success in the cycling business. Then, in 2010, the creation of the Karpos brand marked the debut into the outdoor segment. In 2019, the family transferred a minority share of their stock to the private equity fund Equinox III.

The dynamic business was growing rapidly in all areas and was no longer compatible with the traditional methods developed over the years. In order to drive growth, support their expansion plans and keep up with the expanding number of collections, products and channels, Manifattura Valcismon needed to deploy a platform that could offer full visibility across the product development lifecycle and support decision-making with accurate information available in real time.

“Our company has been growing significantly in production volume and staff. In 2019, we closed with approximately €90 million in revenue,” said Alessio Cremonese, CEO of Manifattura Valcismon. “We have a global presence wherever our sports are practiced and we distribute our products through subsidiaries and agents in the US, Canada, China, Germany, Austria and in Spain. We also have manufacturing sites in America for the American market. Such a far-reaching organization was no longer able to continue working with methods based on e-mail, Excel spreadsheets and an ERP system that forced our team to dedicate a significant portion of their time to administrative activities rather than the value-added tasks for which they had been selected.”

Manifattura Valcismon needed a strong and reliable digital foundation to centralize and streamline product information, achieve transparency and improve communication between the teams. After a thorough selection process, the company decided to implement Centric Outdoor PLM.

“We chose Centric because it is the most flexible and well-matched system for the requirements and goals of our company,” said Manuela Zancanaro, Technical Manager of Manifattura Valcismon. “We immediately got the feeling that it would be the right solution to manage a business like ours, involving a huge number of items, several markets, and many styles across multiple brands and different operations.”

“By leveraging the extraordinary flexibility of Centric Outdoor PLM, we have slashed product development time and time-to-market. As all data is centralized, our teams are always aligned and can access all the information they need in real time. The best example is raw materials. Now, with Centric Outdoor PLM, we have immediate access to pictures of materials and fabrics and the corresponding reference codes. We don’t have to go to the warehouse and pick a physical sample of a code listed inside an Excel spreadsheet, which means we save a lot of time,” Manuela added.

“Centric Outdoor PLM plays a key role in the transformation of our operating methods, helping us meet the current and future needs of our company and laying solid foundations for our growth. Today, considering the benefits we get from this innovative technology, I can say that the solution is worth the financial investment faced by the company, and I will confidently say that I would buy this solution again,” said Alessio Cremonese.

“We are proud that the results achieved by Manifattura Valcismon have met their expectations,” said Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “Manifattura Valcismon selected Centric PLM to support their multi-brand business model and to build a digital platform for their continuous growth and expansion. We are looking forward to collaborating with this dynamic company in the future.”

Read the Success Story

Manifattura Valcismon

A family-owned company operated by the third generation, Manifattura Valcismon was created by Olindo Cremonese in 1946 in Fonzaso, near Belluno, Italy, as a wool spinning business. Later on, in the late Seventies, under the guidance of Giordano Cremonese, a sports fanatic and an expert cross-country skier, the company started to manufacture technical sportswear, launching the Sportful brand. In 2003, the acquisition of the Castelli brand was the first step towards success in the cycling business. In 2010, the creation of the Karpos brand marked the debut into the outdoor segment. In the same year, Steve Smith, a manager who had worked in the company for some time, joined the pool of shareholders. In 2019, the family transferred a minority share of their stock to the private equity fund Equinox III.

Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer goods and home décor. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB provides innovative PLM technology and key industry learnings for emerging brands. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) offers a new fully visual and digital experience for collaboration and decision-making and includes the Centric Buying Board to transform internal buying sessions and maximize retail value and the Centric Concept Board for driving creativity and evolving product concepts. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016 and 2018.

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