RIACHUELO ACCELERATES TIME TO MARKET AND MEETSFAST-CHANGING CONSUMER DEMANDS WITH CENTRIC PLM™

LEADING BRAZILIAN DEPARTMENT STORE USES PLM TO DELIVERPRODUCTS WITH SPEED AND EFFICIENCY AMIDGLOBAL MARKET DISRUPTIONS© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

“Because of the agility that PLM gives us, like the reduction oftime to market and product development lead time, we are now
able to capture new trends. For example, with changes sparked
by the pandemic, our customers want more products for indoor,
at-home living. We are now able to respond and quickly adapt
our collections to what our customers are asking for.”Flávia Märtino, Product Manager at Riachuelo, explains how
Centric’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software wascrucial to delivering the exact products consumers want. PLM
enabled the company to work faster and achieve cost savings,
even during a time of major market disruption.
In 2020, online retail traffic in Brazil grew an average of 39%.
Riachuelo’s investment in digital transformation solutions helped
the company eclipse the country-wide growth. Riachuelo’s
e-commerce traffic grew 249% and sales increased by 124%.

FROM THE BEGINNING		

Riachuelo is the third–largest department store chain in Brazil
and is part of the Guararapes Confecções Group. In 1947,brothers Nevaldo Rocha and Newton Rocha founded theGuararapes Group with a textile store named The Capital. Four
years later, they opened a small factory and established new
points of sale. In 1979, Guararapes Group acquired the chains
Riachuelo and Wolens, expanding operations to apparel retail.
In the 1980s, Riachuelo adopted a fast fashion format, bringing
well-known designers to its clothing collections, such as NeyGalvão, Daslu, Versace and Karl Lagerfeld.
Today, Riachuelo has more than 300 stores and 40,000
employees and operates the largest industrial facility in Latin
America. This expansion came without losing sight of thebrand’s main purpose: delivering quality, fair-value fashion toconsumers.

LINKS IN THE CHAIN			

Given Riachuelo’s large number of users, the roll out ofCentric PLM was carefully planned throughout all stages of
product development—from merchandising to sourcing, frommanagement to design.
Leandro Silva, Sales Director for Centric Software in Brazil,says, “Each area had its own way of working with its own tools
and spreadsheets. Standardization of all of that was a point ofcontention. People didn’t want to change their own processes.
Instead, they wanted others to adapt to their standard. We
frequently come across this, but in big companies with multiple
departments, the challenge is greater.”
Centric’s team also set out to study the company’s productdevelopment workflows due to the verticalization of thebusiness. Centric PLM serves many types of organizations. As
Silva explains, “We have all kinds of customers. Customers whoare purely retail, customers with or without manufacturing,customers who locally source, customers who import, andcustomers who source one part and produce another. Riachuelo
has it all.”© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

“THIS FLEXIBILITY GAVEUS A ‘MAKE’ OR ‘BUY’SCENARIO, AS WE CALL
IT. IT WAS A VERY BIG

BENEFIT AND, OBVIOUSLY,“Märtino says, “Riachuelo is a fashion retail company. It has annual
sales of approximately 8 billion Real (about 1.4 billion USD) ayear. Today, our business model is vertical, so it ranges fromproducing the thread used to make fabrics, weaving the fabrics,
on to the final product. So, we have an extensive supply chain,from product development through to purchasing, logistics andtransportation.”

IMPROVES OUR PRODUCTMARGINS.

STANDARDIZING PROCESSES DOWN TO THE LAST DETAIL			

Centric Software is an out-of-the-box solution designed and continuously innovating using years of industry knowledge and digitaltransformation expertise. Centric’s unique Agile Deployment℠ methodology means that the platform is configurable and can beadapted to the business realities and requirements of individual organizations right during the deployment.
When the team started planning Riachuelo’s workflows, Centric PLM was able to meet all potential configurations of their productdevelopment processes. Märtino says, “I think one of the biggest benefits is process standardization—obviously taking into account thatthe characteristics of each product category are different. Centric PLM is extremely flexible in the management and control of the entire
workflow. You have full control of your process, and it is updated online. So, everyone always has the latest information. As a fashioncompany, this has always been very difficult.”
With Centric’s real-time access to product, people and departmental information, Riachuelo can simulate different scenarios before
making strategic and sourcing decisions. Märtino explains, “I can do all the product creation, development and the quotation with an
external supplier, simulating how much that product would be in the factory. This flexibility gives us a ‘make’ or ‘buy’ scenario, as we callit. It’s a very big benefit and improves our product margins.”
The benefits of standardization capabilities extend even further. The recent increase in online shopping made size standardization apriority for consumers who couldn’t use fitting rooms. Märtino explains that Centric PLM stands out again. “You can make a standard
product fit and measurement chart, with pre-established standardized patterns inside the system, which makes the customer feel
more secure when they buy online. They know that the one brand will always fit in that size, so this has also increased purchases via
digital channels. The customer has confidence that when they buy a medium Shirt, that medium will always work,” says Märtino.

CHALLENGES+ Vertical business model+ Different workflows for
manufacturing and retail+ Different product categories+ Each function invested in its own wayof working+ Version control issues+ Teams daily trying to find the latest
information+ Little insight into final costs andbudget analysis© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

SUSTAINABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY								In addition to style, color, and material libraries, which facilitate design and production compliance, Centric PLM features industry-leading
Adobe and 3D tool integrations. These integrations are important because they connect all functions, including suppliers, in the productapproval process. In a pant sampling cycle, for example, it takes two to four iterations before that item is approved for production. This
involves time and logistics, with trucks delivering the material used to make the garments and also the sample pieces themselves fromone location to another.
“When streamlining and facilitating communication with those who are producing these samples, you save time, effort and material, andyou have much more precision when producing the item. You can even decide not to make physical samples or only one sample, sincethe 3D renderings are so realistic,” says Silva.

CREATIVITY IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND

Centric PLM is a cloud-based solution, enabling users to update informationfrom anywhere in the world. In addition, there are mobile apps that workfrom research to retail, accelerating product development.
Riachuelo uses six apps that add mobility to the design and R&D process.
Märtino explains one of the features of the apps: “On a research trip, theteam can capture an image of a store window display from anywhere. It goes
directly into PLM—and the team will immediately be able to work from theimage itself. We also have an app to do all the product testing and an app to
do all the material research. So, I can go to a fair, take a picture of a fabric, andthe designers will be able to apply that texture to a new product on the spot.”
It is also possible to test the product and adjust the measurement chart andthe fit via the app. When the team travels to China to negotiate with suppliers,
if it is necessary to make adjustments to products, the team can do so within
the app.

RESULTS+ Faster time to market+ Shortened timeline to meet market
trends+ Standardization of processes indifferent departments+ More products meet quality criteria+ More sustainability and speed in
the sample cycle+ Faster decisions regarding products
or supply chains© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

Riachuelo (www.riachuelo.com.br)								Riachuelo is one of the largest fashion companies in Brazil, with more than 300 stores. Riachuelo is part of the Guararapes Group,
which is the largest clothing group in Latin America with two industrial parks, which allows us to offer an excellent cost-benefit ratio toour customers. Today there are more than 22 million Riachuelo card customers and 40,000 employees.
We are the only major fashion retail chain that researches, designs and produces most of its products. We are the direct distribution
channel for Grupo Guararapes products and we adopt the fast fashion concept – agility in the production and distribution of collections– to ensure the rapid dissemination of new trends and generation of added value for each collection. Midway Financeira, Shopping
Midway Mall (Natal - RN) and Transportadora Casa Verde are other companies belonging to the Guararapes Group.

CENTRIC SOFTWARE (www.centricsoftware.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 foodand beverage. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLMTM, delivers enterprise-class merchandiseplanning, 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 retailplanning 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, planningand more as well as creative tools such as Adobe® Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric’s innovations are 100% marketdriven 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 listin 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

www.centricsoftware.com© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved. Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc.
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