Kariban Changes Gears and Chooses Centric PLM™

TOULOUSE, France, June 30, 2020 – Kariban, has selected Centric Software^®‘s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. 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.

Created over 20 years ago, Kariban offers a diversified range of clothing through its own brands for clients to personalize, as well as a range of teamwear, headwear and luggage for a professional clientele of promotional item resellers, professional uniform suppliers, screen printers, embroiderers and advertising agencies. The Kariban brand, whose product offer started with a single rugby shirt, today manages nearly 20,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) and 1,400 styles. Kariban’s design and management teams operate from Toulouse, France. Manufacturing is outsourced to Asia, mainly taking place in Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Turkey.

In an extremely competitive promotional market, streamlining and modernizing the product design and development process became imperative. Kariban’s development phase was particularly time-consuming and slowed down by erratic sample management. Between demand and production, it could take four to six months. Kariban’s distribution activity involved handling a large volume of inventory and referrals, which was extremely complex and slow with the Product Data Management (PDM) tool they had in place. The PDM system was disconnected from other information systems, requiring reentry of the same data set in different tools with the risk of making cascading errors. The brand set out to find a PLM solution that would allow it to synchronize all stages of the product and collection lifecycle.

“The fashion world is moving fast,” explains Laurent Marceau, Managing Director at TOPTEX Group / Kariban. “Faced with increased competition, it is essential to continue to modernize our work tools to gain performance. We must always be one step ahead.”

Kariban Executives conducted a large market study and tested three PLM solutions. According to Nizam Deepooa, Technical and Quality Director at TOPTEX Group / Kariban, Centric Lifestyle PLM was selected for its capabilities and references in the distribution and fast fashion sector.

“Centric offers very flexible configuration,” says Olivier Labourel, Director of Information Systems at TOPTEX Group / Kariban. “The solution covers the entire value chain from source to final product and will allow us to link our ERP tool and PIM system. This global and open solution perfectly meets our needs.”

“Centric PLM will encourage exchanges between employees and suppliers around design, product development, supply and production, in particular thanks to Centric’s mobile applications, which are very useful on our many trips,” adds Marceau. “Finally, the system strengthens our employer brand with the most competent employees, by offering them an intuitive and innovative working interface in which they can easily find their brands and work comfortably.”

“We are delighted that Kariban has chosen to partner with Centric,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “This leading promotional clothing brand was looking for a robust solution capable of following the changes and rhythm of the fashion market in order to manage all aspects of its supply, design and manufacturing chain on a large scale with extreme precision. With Centric PLM, Kariban is on track to achieve its ambitions and prepare for future growth, while offering its clients quality products at an ever-faster pace.”

Learn more about Centric Lifestyle PLM

Request a Demo

Kariban (www.toptex.fr)

For over 20 years, the Kariban brand has stood out for its modern vision of advertising textiles. Through clean lines, meticulously selected materials, fitted cuts and French elegance, the brand has made ready-to-wear classics into essential corporate promotional clothing. Kariban is constantly renewing and modernizing its historic collections, and regularly presents new ranges. It offers a Premium range consisting of top quality products: Supima® cotton t-shirts and polo shirts, light trench coats, jeans, and a range of ecological clothing. Kariban wishes to go further by emphasizing the concepts of eco-responsibility in its production by integrating more and more references in organic cotton certified by Ecocert Greenlife.

Must-haves for the most specific image clothing; materials in the manufacturing process that provide softness, comfort and optimal printability; everything is considered to offer a large choice of colors and sizes and meet the needs of professionals.

Kariban is a brand distributed by the TopTex group, created in 1994 by Laurent Marti. Leader in France and in the Benelux and in the European Top3, the TopTex Group distributes more than 40 brands in 2019, the most important of the advertising market: Fruit of the Loom, Gildan, B&C, Russell Europe, etc. as well as its own brands, essential references on the European market: Kariban (image clothing), ProAct (sportswear teamwear), K-Up (headwear), Kimood (luggage).

Centric Software (centric-staging.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 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 is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and PLM solutions.

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.