The Woody Group Gears Up For The New Decade With Centric PLM™

Belgian nightwear brand transforms the concept to retail experience

Campbell, CA (PRWEB) - The market leader for nightwear, underwear and children’s pajamas in Belgium has chosen Centric PLM as a long-term solution to empower its teams with greater visibility and bring great products to market faster. 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.

The Woody Group has more than a quarter of a century’s experience in the design, manufacture and distribution of high-quality nightwear, bodywear, swimwear and loungewear for babies, kids and adults through three separate brands: Woody, Lords&Lilies and Manned. Designed in Belgium and manufactured in The Woody Group’s own 7000m² plant in Turkey, the brands are primarily sold through more than 350 points of sale in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as the company’s own online store.

Mehmet Batur, the owner of Woody Group, says the proliferation of different software packages at The Woody Group was hampering internal communications.

“The opportunity to use one common platform is transformational in terms of reliability and flexibility, from concept to retail. Even though we’re geographically dispersed with teams in Ghent (Belgium) and Istanbul (Turkey), being able to see every step of the design process in one place really facilitates collaboration.”

The Woody Group plans to expand their business by increasing both its number of SKUs and shops. In order to keep up with the accelerated growth, teams need a strong foundation of standardized processes within a digital platform and access to consistent data in real time. Centric Retail PLM will accelerate collaboration and make idea-sharing more efficient between the globally scattered teams.

One of the ways The Woody Group will streamline their processes is by integrating Centric PLM with both of their existing ERP systems (one in Turkey and the other in Belgium), enabling teams to feed the ERPs with accurate BOM data generated within the PLM platform, giving teams maximum visibility. They’ll track product development by brand, greatly improving efficiency while responding to market demands faster.

Batur, who was the long-term manufacturer for The Woody Group before acquiring the company three years ago, comments on Centric’s position as the PLM market leader. “We explored other companies, but Centric’s references from other innovative, globally renowned companies are compelling.” Batur was also impressed by Centric PLM’s configurability and ease of use, “We want elasticity and flexibility for complicated processes and Centric convinced us how the project is going to be revolutionary for how we do business.”

“We’re honored that The Woody Group has chosen Centric Software® as their long-term PLM partner,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “I am confident that our market-leading PLM solution and expertise in the industry will help fuel growth for the nightwear brand and am looking forward to their successful future.”

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The Woody Group (thewoodygroup.com)
The Woody Group, the company behind Woody, was formed in 1993 by Ghent-born Michel Van de Velde. The former computer scientist was unable to find high-grade playful nightwear for his daughter. Seeing a gap in the market, he decided to launch his own collection. As a fan of British illustrator Woody Fox, Michel asked him to design the prints. His name was also the inspiration for the “Woody” brand name. The illustrations that Woody Fox made for JellyCoe – crazy animals in glow-in-the-dark prints – were an instant hit. For the design of the nightwear, Michel Van de Velde contacted a young designer from the Antwerp fashion academy alongside experienced patternmakers.

The continued success of Woody 25 years later is primarily due to its legendary quality. The Turkish family firm Bella Tekstill has been Woody’s regular manufacturing partner for more than 20 years. When the brand’s founder decided to take more of a back seat in 2017, he identified Bella Tekstill’s co-owner Mehmet Batur as the ideal person to take over the firm. In 2017 Mehmet Batur acquired all the shares of JellyCoe, whose name was changed to The Woody Group. After the departure of the previous management, a managing director was needed to run the Belgian team in Ghent, where The Woody Group continues to be based. Mehmet Batur found the right person in Steven Van de Velde.