Vertbaudet Centralizes Product Data and Drives Efficiency With Centric PLM

The European leader in the children's market

Founded in 1963, Vertbaudet meets all needs for future parents: ready-to-wear, footwear, home decor, childcare products and toys. With 1,000+ employees and 85% of revenue from digital, Vertbaudet operates 10 websites and serves 3 million active customers across Europe. The brand maintains 75 exclusive stores in France.

Objective: accelerate growth!

“Vertbaudet features diverse product universes where private label, national brands and marketplaces coexist—notably Vertbaudet, Jonen and Envie de Fraise,” explains Tiv. Collection renewal proved difficult with having both annualized and seasonal products. Heterogeneous budgets and strict regulatory compliance requirements for non-apparel items added to this complexity.

With the ERP serving as the nerve center for all product attributes, an in-house PLM to centralize product files for suppliers plus numerous spreadsheets to manage strategy and collections, teams were working in several disparate systems. ”The legacy ERP was too rigid for collection work—any modification to a product reference required manual updates across multiple tools,” says Tiv. “The lack of centralization created a significant risk of error and wasted time ensuring and restoring consistency across files. This hindered agility and threatened business operations.”

To convince upper management that PLM is a sound investment, Vertbaudet performed a complete inventory of 70+ tools and spreadsheets that stored product data. The company mapped time-consuming tasks performed by its business teams and quantified precise potential efficiency gains. This highlighted the promise of a rigorous data-structuring program. “The study estimates a gain of five hours per week per employee—a 15 to 20% daily efficiency recovery,” says Delcroix. “Management recognized that PLM drives scaling: the capacity to manage more products and collections while benchmarking suppliers, without overloading teams.”

Centric PLM emerged as the choice for the most robust solution to streamline Vertbaudet's entire value chain from pre-launch through development.

Precision tracking

The project involved 120 employees, including product managers, buyers, designers and quality managers. The implementation covered all product categories through common features: the creation of materials and packaging libraries, design functions like Illustrator file management, color libraries, product specifications (including bills of materials (BOMs), technical files and samples), sourcing and pricing.

Vertbaudet designated key users to liaise between business teams, internal steering committees and the framework established by Centric Software. A dedicated team included a project director, technical consultant and functional consultant. “Vertbaudet utilized an internal duo of business and IT project managers to designate key users. These users, chosen for their expertise and knowledge of internal processes, joined during the RFP phase and participated end-to-end. Their actions proved decisive after go-live,” notes Charlotte Delcroix.

Rapid development through prepack methodology

To drive momentum and ensure rapid go-live, the deployment utilized preconfigured Centric PLM modules. This prepack methodology guided the different business teams. Preconfigurations that were adapted to Vertbaudet's context allowed adjustments at a sustained pace. This approach also was an advantage in anticipating key challenges. “The team cobuilt this schedule with Centric Software. Alignment with the business calendar allowed teams to get started on a new season in PLM without managing multiple tools,” says Charlotte Delcroix. “We interfaced Centric PLM with the ERP early to avoid functional delays.”

Regularly scheduled, Iterative workshops organized months in advance drove rapid, efficient project progress. Between sessions, key users reviewed choices, verified configurations and validated use cases for the different trainings.

Users now rarely leave Centric PLM.

The deployment schedule accounted for seasonal peaks. This synchronization prevented the coexistence of new and old tools, and optimized user integration. Collaborative governance managed decisions, such as deferring features or restricting data scope.

Change management

Deploying PLM is first and foremost, a human challenge. Internal kick-offs, collaborative workshops and a dedicated supplier team accelerated skill development at every stage. “Change management evolves habits so that the use of the tool becomes natural. A successful project requires a tool that is utilized, not just a working one. We moved from scattered spreadsheets to a structured environment. Users now rarely leave Centric PLM,” says Delcroix.

Certain processes required more configuration. Identifying relevant profiles early allowed project managers to capture specific needs and strengthen adoption. “We prioritized communication and proximity. Users quickly recognized PLM's value and adopted the tool, even initiating requests for further configurations,” adds Tiv.

Visible results

Delcroix sums up, “Decisive choices kept the project on schedule and met all milestones. Controlled budgeting and scope account for phase 2 requirements identified during the initial agile phase.”

Repeating the initially cited statistics, Delcroix restates Vertbaudet's results: “An entire season processed in PLM, 2,300+ active references, 80 to 100 daily users and 10,000+ historical references across six integration flows. We operate a sustainable PLM that communicates perfectly within our ecosystem.”

Today, Centric PLM serves as Vertbaudet’s solid foundation, ensuring flexibility and longevity. Teams use Centric PLM daily to develop the offer, manage complexity and drive revenue. All indicators signal a green light for phase 2.

Respecting scope, budget and deadlines

To ensure success of these three core commitments, rigorous governance, priority-setting and a culture of respect prevailed. Continuous budget adjustments avoided surprises. Centric PLM maintains simplicity and evolves with new company needs.