CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 January 2007
Implementation Investments
Pacific Sunwear Selects TradeStone to Unify Global Buying, Sourcing and Streamline Brand Management
TradeStone Software announced that retailer Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. has selected the TradeStone Suite to unify its global buying and sourcing process and to streamline its brand management. The clothing retailer turned to TradeStone in order to speed design to delivery cycle time and work more closely with its manufacturers around the globe.
Pacific Sunwear sources nearly 40 percent of its product internationally with a blend of proprietary brands and those from other suppliers. TradeStone Software will enable them to unify the buying process so they can see both branded and proprietary product mixes, the margins on each, and gain visibility across the supply chain from concept to delivery. In all, the TradeStone Suite will bring together as many as 250 suppliers with Pacific Sunwear distribution centers in California and Kansas.
"Brand management is the heart and soul of our overall strategy, so we focus on having the best and most complete portfolio of leading action sports brands," said Teresa Nersesyan, vice president of Global Supply Chain Operations at Pacific Sunwear. "Key to this brand management strategy is utilizing our own proprietary brands to respond to new fashion trends and expanding the breadth of our merchandise assortment and price points. TradeStone and the Unified Buying Process will play a central role in building on this strategy."
Pacific Sunwear will be using the TradeStone Suite to build a streamlined purchasing process for both its branded and proprietary goods in order to ensure that the right merchandise reaches the right one of its 1,200+ stores at the right time. Part of that process is improved communication with vendors, factories and service providers, all of whom will be using the TradeStone Suite as a central collaboration platform.
"Key to selecting any software for our business is a deep understanding of its technical underpinnings and scalability to support our own growth," stated Ron Ehlers, vice president of Information Services at Pacific Sunwear. "But even more impressive is the TradeStone Suite's flexibility and built-in best practices. This is truly software that merchants love."
The TradeStone Suite enables buyers, merchants and sourcing professionals to quickly develop product specifications and communicate to potential suppliers by generating Requests for Quotes (RFQs) that are put out to bid to manufacturers worldwide. By normalizing disparate currencies, languages and lead times, and automatically calculating the estimated landed costs for goods, the TradeStone Suite enables product managers and buyers to easily and accurately compare offers from different manufacturers, regardless of their location.
"Proprietary branding will continue to be a key growth strategy for most retailers as we head into 2007," said TradeStone CEO Sue Welch. "Companies like Pacific Sunwear are leading the charge by blending their own proprietary brands with other products. But key to making it all work is gaining a strong handle on costs, margins and speed through the supply chain. For that retailers need a Unified Buying Process."
With the TradeStone Suite, buyers make an order and then the software automatically sets milestones such as quality assurance testing, pre-production plans and production plans that are managed between both the supplier and buyer. This ensures that quality goods are delivered on-time and on-budget. In all, TradeStone provides a financial and merchandise view of sourced and ordered items across all lifecycle phases.
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