Case Study: Ackermans achieves digital transformation and real-time insights with Centric Software

Creating a PLM Community at Ackermans

Ackermans, a century-old leading value fashion retailer in South Africa with more than 600 stores and part of the Pepkor group, struggled with fragmented, paper- and spreadsheet-based buying and global sourcing processes. Communication with international suppliers was handled by email with no audit trail, collaboration was slow, and manual margin analysis and currency recalculations could take days or weeks, causing delays and inaccurate financial decisions.

Ackermans implemented Centric PLM (go‑live January 2016) using an agile, highly configurable approach to centralize data and standardize processes, moving all buying activity into a single digital platform. The change delivered immediate results: margin roll-ups that once took weeks now take seconds, tenders are produced in two hours rather than two days, exchange rates update automatically, supplier communication is fully audited in-system, and major bottlenecks in planning and purchase-order management were eliminated.

Ackermans

Raynard Potgieter

Buying Director