Dr. Schär Scales Compliant Product Content Across 100+ Countries with AI-driven Centric PXM

“It was very chaotic. There were no tools at all, apart from spreadsheets, emails and other disparate systems . These are not tools that aim to make our lives easier. Our product development process involves around 11 to 14 different players. It was all over the place.”

Manuel Telser, Head of Global Digital Operations at Dr. Schär describes the situation before Centric PXM™ . Dr. Schär’s teams operated with fragmented and disconnected data sources like  spreadsheets, distributed cloud storage locations and local file repositories.

As growth accelerated, so did operational challenges. Localizing product descriptions including ingredient lists, allergen information and packaging labels,  drained time and budgets. At the same time, the complexity of meeting various market-specific compliance, sustainability and quality  standards increased, along with the risk of costly errors.

Today, the company has real-time, consistent and fully localized product enrichment and lifecycle information across global teams. Centric PXM provides the unified solution that finally made this possible.

Pioneering gluten-free innovation across 100+ countries

Headquartered in South Tyrol, Italy, Dr. Schär is a global leader and pioneer in gluten-free and specialized nutrition, with four flagship brands: Schär, Flavis, Kanso and Mikara. From restaurants to fast-food chains, Dr. Schär meets diverse dietary needs at scale. With 18 locations in 12 countries and 1,800 employees, the company has a global presence in over 100 countries, generating €624 million in 2024 revenue.

Global growth hindered by outdated processes

As Dr. Schär expanded into new regions  with distinct food regulations, managing compliant product data grew increasingly complex. Without a unified source of truth, teams lacked visibility, slowing decision-making and weakening data governance.

“It was very complicated and time-consuming for anyone who needed data or media for a product,” Telser explains. “We ended up with many isolated solutions. We always had to ask ourselves whether the data was up to date or if it was outdated.”

Product data sheets were handled by an external agency, often requiring multiple correction cycles. Data duplication across locations added to the manual workload. Verifying accuracy became a constant manual burden, further extending go-to-market timelines.

“Our markets, customer service, sales and local marketing departments felt the impact,” Telser notes. “When they needed information about a product, they had to search through what felt like 15 different sources.”

Recognizing the limitations of its legacy workflows, Dr. Schär turned to workflow automation and end-to-end product data management, laying the foundation for future scalability.

Legal and regional compliance under pressure

Beyond operational inefficiencies, inaccurate product data introduced legal risk, especially under the EU’s Food Information Regulation (LMIV). For Dr. Schär, ensuring that online product information matched the physical packaging was critical.

Telser highlights the stakes, “It would be disastrous if, for example, we declared that a product was lactose-free, but due to a change in the recipe, it is no longer lactose-free, and that change is not reflected on the market.” Simultaneously, expanding into new markets exposed the company to varying regional regulations. Each country has its own requirements, ranging from permitted claims to allergen disclosures, which adds layers of complexity and slows market readiness.

Centralizing and enriching global product content with Centric PXM

To support international growth, Dr. Schär selected  ™ and Centric DAM™, modules of the broader Centric PXM platform, which also includes Product Content Syndication to more than 1000+ channels and Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA), in a single, centralized system of record.

Centric PXM’s intuitive interface and flexible configuration perfectly meets Dr. Schär’s complex, cross-border requirements.

The rollout included deep stakeholder involvement through workshops and training to drive adoption and internal ownership.

“Centric PXM is very modular. We can build our data model with elements, objects, classes and attribute configuration how we want,” Telser explains. This flexibility made it easy for Dr. Schär to structure the system around its four brands, multiple product lines and localized content needs.

Telser recalls how Centric PXM became a turning point, “The information in Centric PXM is product enrichment data. Everyone has the same data and it is all in one place, which allows for better collaboration among teams.”

Automation and quality assurance at scale

Embedding data governance early in the product development cycle transformed operations. “We decided not to wait until the market launch to complete the PIM,” says Telser. “We now track product data from the concept phase, even before development begins. That was key to getting internal buy-in.”

About 90 employees actively maintain data in the system, while over 400 users from departments including sales, marketing and logistics can now easily access consistent, accurate product data. Previous cloud storage solutions were fully phased out, as Centric PXM’s scalable PIM system became the backbone of information flow, preceding even the ERP system.

Beyond configurability, the system brought structure and accountability. “Centric PXM also assigns accountability for the information sets. It enables us to define the process and who owns what information. Centric PIM lends structure to the data,” Telser explains. This clarity ensures that each stakeholder had a defined role in the data lifecycle.

Built-in data quality assurance reports flag data gaps in real time, reducing feedback loops and preventing non-compliant content from going live. Dr. Schär’s German ecommerce site is already fully powered by Centric PIM, with further market rollouts underway.

Streamlining workflows and reclaiming time

Now a centralized, automated system delivers data within seconds, giving teams a complete overview of product data management.

“Centric PXM has saved us a lot of manual labor and time. ” says Telser. “Before, if a category developer needed information now contained in the PIM, they would have had to request it from a researcher, who would have to stop his work and get it for the category developer.”

By mapping and optimizing critical workflows end-to-end, Dr. Schär unlocked capacity for innovation, product development and strategic initiatives. “What used to take hours of work can now be done with a single click,” Telser adds. “There is less disruption in the process and teams have more time to focus on important work that adds value.”

Smart workflows and future-ready innovation

Embedding automation into core processes has accelerated and improved the reliability of meeting regional food compliance requirements. Dr. Schär expanded its capabilities to automate the creation and translation of product listings. Packaging ingredient lists and critical documents, such as certificates of analysis for export, are now automatically generated, translated and contextualized to comply with country-specific regulations.

“We’ve built internal tools that pull directly from PIM data.” Telser states. “For example, our export office can now instantly generate country-specific certificates that used to take hours to create manually.”

He goes on to say,

Looking ahead, the company plans to expand its Centric PXM capabilities by syndicating product data directly from Centric PIM and providing partners with access via a dedicated search portal. This will replace country-specific data pools with centralized management.

A smarter path to product transparency

Beyond operational efficiency, the system positions Dr. Schär to navigate evolving regulatory landscapes with confidence. It lays a solid foundation to comply with the EU’s Digital Product Passport requirements and supports the creation of enriched product landing pages, enhancing consumer trust.

“We have everything integrated—from marketing data to sales figures, ingredient lists, nutritional values, packaging details and more—all fully automated and ready for regulatory demands,” Telser states. “We want to implement QR codes on almost all products, linking them to comprehensive content on our website, ensuring consumers and partners have direct access to reliable data.”

Simultaneously, integration with the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) will automate and streamline global assortments exchanges with retail partners, ensuring accuracy across all sales channels.

Building a foundation for scalable success

Transforming fragmented data into a powerful, automated system removed bottlenecks and compliance risks. With sharper data accuracy and seamless collaboration across teams and partners, Dr. Schär is ready to innovate faster and deliver consistent, trustworthy product content worldwide.

Upcoming goals include streamlining data distribution, completing the rollout of the DAM platform and expanding AI capabilities. Long-term plans include expanding the MDM system to link packaging materials and raw materials to each product.

Looking forward, Telser shares, “If a product developer wants to create a specific product, like a Margherita pizza for the Italian market, they’ll have precise information on every detail, down to the exact packaging type and cardboard thickness. That’s the goal we want to reach.”

This dynamic foundation enables Dr. Schär to confidently meet specific dietary needs at scale, fueling customer loyalty and global expansion. “We are proud that we have been able to implement this. We shut down all other shared folders because everything now runs completely through Centric PIM,” Telser concludes.