CAMPBELL, Calif., Aug. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Centric Software was selected by Belle International Holdings Limited (Belle), a leading Chinese footwear and sportswear retailer, to provide its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

The Belle Group's business is broadly divided into three main segments: footwear, sportswear and apparel. In addition to its own private label brands which includes 6 of the top 10 ladies leather footwear brands in China, Belle distributes top global brands such as CAT, Clarks, Nike, adidas and Converse. In 2015, Belle's total number of company-managed retail outlets reached 20,873 in mainland China. Belle also manages nearly 200 retail outlets in Hong Kong and Macau.

As one of the largest and most well-known retail groups in China, Belle has been developing a new retail strategy including the acquisition of new apparel brands such as Japan's Baroque group and strengthening the digitization of supply chain management.

"Belle has very large and strong in-house IT team to support retail management, but after acquiring Baroque, developing its Chinese business and adding more new brands, we realized that our internal IT team needed more supply chain and apparel product business knowledge," explains Alan Ma, IT Director, East China Belle Group. "The IT team needed a professional PLM system to support supply chain management from design to production. This is the first time Belle has chosen an outsourced IT solution, but we realized how much we needed a PLM system to ensure data accuracy, speed time to market and reduce costs."

Following the advice of a PLM consultant and comparisons with other vendors, Belle chose Centric PLM on the basis of its user-friendly interface and the company's professional expertise.

As Ma says, "Centric PLM is very flexible and almost feels like a customized system for us, even though it is an out of the box solution. It's extremely configurable and user-friendly. It's very competitive compared to other PLM systems we've investigated on the market. The Centric team is professional and reliable, and we're happy to work with them."

"Belle is looking forward to great success with the implementation of Centric PLM," says Ma. "With the Centric team's knowledge and experience in fashion PLM, we aim to improve our own IT team's knowledge in apparel and supply chain management in order to support our aggressive new retail strategy."

"Belle owns 5 factories in mainland China, and we also believe Centric PLM will help with internal and external collaboration between our different sites. We see this as a long-term partnership with Centric, starting with the apparel division of our business," Ma concludes.

"We would like to welcome Belle International as our latest partner in China," says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. "Belle is a well-known name with an impressive portfolio of brands and we are honored to partner with them in their digital transformation and new retail strategy."

Belle International Holdings Limited ( http://www.belleintl.com)

The Belle Group's business is broadly divided into two main segments – the footwear business and sportswear and apparel business. Company-owned footwear brands include Belle, Staccato, Joy & Peace, Millie's, JipiJapa, Mirabell, Tata, Teenmix, Senda, Basto, SKAP, :15MINS, Map by Belle, etc. Distribution brands include Bata, CAT, Clarks, Fitflop, Hush Puppies, Mephisto, Merrell etc. For company-owned brands, the Group mainly adopts a vertically integrated business model which covers product research and development, procurement, manufacturing, distribution and retailing. For distribution brands, the Group operates the business in two different models, brand licensing and retail distribution.

The majority of our sportswear and apparel business is in the form of retail distribution, including sportswear brands Nike, Adidas, Puma, Converse, Vans, Timberland, Asics, Onitsuka Tiger and apparel brands MOUSSY, SLY and REPLAY.

According to the China Industrial Information Center, for the year 2013, 6 of the top 10 brands in the ladies' leather footwear market in PRC in terms of sales revenue belonged to the Group, including Belle (1st), Teenmix (2nd), Tata ( 3rd), Staccato (4th), Basto (5th) and Senda (9th). Belle (ladies' footwear) and Senda (men's footwear) were crowned Most Trusted Brands in 2013.
As at 29 February 2015, the total number of company-managed retail outlets of the Group reached 20,873 in Mainland China. The Group also managed nearly 200 retail outlets in Hong Kong and Macau.

Centric Software ( http://www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) is a visual, fully digital collection of boards for touch-based devices like iPad, iPhone and large-scale, touch-screen televisions. Centric VIP transforms decision making and automates execution to truly collapse time to market and distance to trend. Centric's flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality, and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM in 2016 and Frost & Sullivan's Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Media Contacts:
Centric Software
Americas: Jennifer Forsythe, jforsythe(at)centricsoftware.com
Europe: Kristen Salaun Batby, ksalaun-batby(at)centricsoftware.com
Asia: Lily Dong, lily.dong(at)centricsoftware.com

SOURCE Centric Software