Spruce International Adopts Centric PLM™ to Drive Efficiency
Most others [PLM vendors] don't provide that level of expertise around the world or provide that level of service.
MONTREAL (PRWEB) September 21, 2021
Spruce International, an up and coming fashion company, has selected Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric for emerging brands. 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.
Based in Santa Monica, California, Spruce International is the design and R&D center of two brands, Magnlens and Hanscool as well as some private label projects. Jingying Textiles in Guangdong, China is the parent company and provides the fabrics for the brands, making the company vertically integrated. Hanscool sells upscale clothing in China. Magnlens sports collections for men and women, and is being sold online at magnlens.com, currently shipping to US addresses.
Like many start-ups, Spruce was using Excel and email for product development. But having been established in October 2019, Vice President of Design and Creative Director Andrew Buckler decided to bring in PLM to give the company the right start. “As a new, modern company we were fed up with spreadsheets.” He was also familiar with PLM from past experience in the fashion design world.
The selection process involved looking at multiple vendors, but ultimately, Spruce chose Centric SMB. “What impressed us about Centric is the way it can grow with us as a company. Right now we're on SMB, but I can see us expanding from that sometime in the near future,” says Buckler. He mentions another factor in their decision. “Centric has quite a robust team in China. The dynamic of our company is we have design, marketing and sales here in the US. But then the other half—production, development and everything else is in China. And we wanted a system that we could use in both locations.”
It goes deeper than that. Buckler explains, “More fundamentally, the Centric team in China would be able to work with our team in China—train them, get them up to speed. That was one of the key considerations of why we ended up going with Centric. Most others don't provide that level of expertise around the world or provide that level of service.”
Centric PLM is available in multiple languages including Mandarin, with offices across the globe so international teams can comfortably use the software in their native language and environment. “We’re expecting this to really speed up communication. Having a system that is precise, and directed, will definitely help that and everyone logging into the same system is a huge advantage,” says Buckler.
Another advantage is having Centric PLM be a single source of truth for all product information vs. having various versions of spreadsheets on different computers. “With one central system that everyone’s looking at, we’ll cut out the wasted time going back and forth trying to figure out who has done what and if they even got that email with X information and Y instructions...”
Spruce is committed to the environment. Not only do they use sustainable components and raw materials for their fabrics, but they also revamped the traditional fabric-making process. Buckler describes the Founder Mr Taiping Peng CEO of Jingying Textile’s passion for sustainability. “Massive amounts of water are traditionally used to make fabrics. He cut that by 40% through innovative redesign of equipment, to totally rethinking the way you dye fabric. We use a cold-dye process to cut out having to heat water and lose it to the air.” Spruce is using 3D modeling which contributes to reducing their carbon footprint by not having to ship as many samples back and forth.
Currently at the training stage, Spruce plans to implement PLM for their collections first. Buckler says, “One of the plans for the future is to expand PLM all the way through to fabric creation. It would be ideal to track projects from conception of the fabric through to the conception and creation of the garment.”
Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software says, “We are proud to partner with such an environmentally sound company that is both forward thinking and fashion forward. By getting Centric PLM in earlier in the company’s history, Spruce International has set themselves up for success now and in the future.”
Spruce International (http://www.spruceint.com)
Spruce International USA was founded in 2019 based in Santa Monica, California housing international sales and design. Spruce produces knit fabrics for the apparel industry worldwide in addition to our two brands, Magnlens and Hanscool. Magnlens is an athleisure company, serving the US. Hanscool offers Luxury menswear and womenswear collections. We also do private label.
