PEP Selects Centric PLM™ to Enhance a Design and Customer- Led Strategy

Renowned retailer, PEP partners with Centric Software® to gain efficiencies and align assortment strategies with financial goals.

CAMPBELL, Calif., May 3, 2022 – PEP, Africa’s largest single brand retailer, has selected Centric Software‘s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to improve efficiencies and optimize product assortments to further business growth. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

With a footprint of more than 2,500 retail stores and a workforce of over 17,000 employees, PEP offers wanted products and services at the lowest possible prices to make it possible for everyone to look and feel good. With the retailer expecting to sell more than 760 million products this year, the need to enhance their customer-led strategy to match the demand became paramount.

“Up to this point, a lot of our planning was based on historical sales and contributions, done in isolation across various departments and sub-departments. Assortments within each department would be created without having visibility of a complete head-to-toe customer look”, says Hannes Baard, Merchandise and Planning Solutions Manager at PEP.

Tobie Lourens, Business and Solutions Architect at PEP, reflects on how the business considered a variety of options before settling on PLM. “PEP wanted to provide its customers with a full spectrum solution. We initially scoped for an assortment planning tool, but soon realized our teams needed full visibility and control of costs, supply chains and workflow from the initial idea through to in-store.”

After being exposed to Centric PLM, PEP realized it offered so much more than assortment planning. Centric PLM aligned with PEP’s wider business goals, as well as being 100% flexible and configurable, with the ability to integrate with their assortment planning tool. “The user-intuitive interface and functionality really appealed to our merchandise and planning teams and the technical team were won over with the architecture and configurability of Centric PLM,” explains Baard.

PEP plans to connect all users across the globe, with buyers, merchandisers and suppliers all collaborating within a ‘single source of the truth’.

PEP Stores set ambitious KPIs for their PLM implementation based on 5 pillars: customer satisfaction, resource efficiencies, growth, operating profit and market share. After implementing Centric PLM, the business expects an increase in sales and a reduction in markdowns.

“With Centric PLM, our product development and buying teams can conceptualize the range, build it out and use it as a funnel to get to the final assortment that lands with the customer,” says Lourens.

“Centric Software is delighted to partner with PEP at such a pivotal point in their journey. We are excited at the prospect of enhancing their customer-first and collaborative product development strategy.” comments Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software.

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PEP Stores (www.pepstores.com)

PEP is Africa’s largest single brand retailer operating more than 2500 stores in Southern Africa. Since 1965 PEP has aimed to delight their remarkable customers who on a very small budget make it possible for their families to live with dignity and pride.

As well as clothing and footwear, PEP sells homeware, FMCG, cellular and airtime products and also offers a range of other services such as cash-backs, Capfin (for loans), funeral policies, cross-border money transfers, selected bill payments, Flash electricity tokens, and more…

PEP employs more than 17 000 people who are united by one of the strongest corporate cultures in the world called Sikhula KunYe (which means we are growing together).

Centric Software (centric-staging.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software® provides a Product Concept to Consumer Digital Transformation Platform for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics and consumer goods including cosmetics and personal care and food and beverage. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLM™, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Retail Planning is an innovative, cloud-native solution powered by Armonica Retail S.R.L., that delivers an end-to-end retail planning process designed to maximize retail business performance. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planning and more as well as creative tools such as Adobe® Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric’s innovations are 100% market-driven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. 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, 2018 and 2021.

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