May 21st, 2024

Saucony China Leverages Centric PLM to Boost Market Responsiveness

Running shoe brand powers R&D and supply chain collaboration to improve efficiency and reduce costs

CAMPBELL, Calif., May 21, 2024 – Centric Software® is pleased to announce that high-performance running brand Saucony will implement Centric PLM™ to drive transformation toward a product-centric R&D and supply chain. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Saucony, established in 1898 in the US, produces both professional and leisure sports shoes and is recognized as one of the top four running shoe brands globally. In 2023, Xtep International reached an agreement with Wolverine Group, the parent company of Saucony, resulting in a joint venture that became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xtep, responsible for the Saucony brand’s operations in China.

Xtep Group and Saucony are working hand in hand to create ‘China line products’ exclusively for the China market. This poses challenges for Saucony’s product innovation, supply chain responsiveness and team collaboration efficiency. Xtep is introducing its key technologies, processes and resources to Saucony, which is one of the key reasons why Saucony is adopting Centric PLM. Since 2018, Xtep Group has used Centric PLM to establish a collaborative design and R&D platform that has enhanced the core competitiveness of their products.

Mr. Wang Yongbao, Supply Chain Director of Saucony, says, “Centric PLM will play a crucial role in enhancing work efficiency and integrating data. We have witnessed the numerous benefits that the Xtep brand has gained. We hope that by implementing Centric PLM, we can enhance Saucony’s market responsiveness, reduce costs and support the platform-based development of Xtep Group in the future.”

The core objective of the project is to establish a R&D and supply chain collaboration platform that is “standardized, coordinated, resource-shared, and efficiency-enhanced.” Centric Software has deployed a team with rich experience in the sports and outdoor industry to replicate the successful experiences of the Xtep brand at Saucony, and plans to complete the project implementation within three months.

As Mr. Wang says, “I believe that with Centric’s professional support, both parties can reach consensus, achieve the implementation of the PLM system and meet our expected goals. In the future, continuous optimization and iteration will be pursued, opening a new chapter of digitalization for Saucony China.”

“We are delighted that Saucony has decided to follow in the footsteps of Xtep Group by selecting Centric PLM,” says Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software. “Saucony’s business in China is currently undergoing rapid development and change, and we are excited to be part of a project that builds upon an existing framework of success to expand and innovate further in the future.”

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Saucony (www.saucony.com)

Saucony, established in 1898 in the United States, is a professional running shoe brand. With a century-long dedication to the design, research, and manufacturing of running shoes, it has garnered immense love and admiration from runners worldwide. Its products are divided into two main categories: professional sports and leisure sports. Saucony is recognized as one of the top four running shoe brands globally.

In December 2023, Xtep International reached an agreement with Wolverine Group, the parent company of Saucony, to acquire the stake held by the joint venture established in 2019. Consequently, the joint venture became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xtep, responsible for the Saucony brand’s operations in China.

Centric Software® (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides an innovative and AI-enabled product concept-to-replenishment platform for retailers, brands and manufacturers of all sizes. As experts in fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor, home and related goods like cosmetics & personal care as well as multi-category retail, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to plan, design, develop, source, 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 giving insights into consumer trends, competitor offers and pricing to boost competitively 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 Software’s market-driven, best-of-breed 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.