CAMPBELL, CA, Apr 26, 2023 – Centric Software, the product lifecycle management (PLM) market leader, is pleased to announce that CTI Foods, the custom food-service manufacturer, has selected Centric PLM for their business. 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, consumer electronics, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Headquartered in Saginaw, TX, CTI Foods serves the restaurant and industrial ingredient industries with proteins, soups, sauces and dressing innovations through six USDA-approved production facilities. The CTI R&D team creates chef-led, custom, proprietary products for their customers, many of them well-known QSR restaurants, providing maximum quality and value.
The company’s manufacturing plants are spread across the US and CTI is moving toward centralizing certain operations. Director of research and development, Les Thiel says, “It is a challenge to transfer information among plants and functional groups. There was an obvious need to have one source of truth in product development. Having to look through and find the latest email or Excel document became a source of frustration.” Each plant was operating somewhat independently with different workflows and ingredients. “PLM gives us the opportunity to get a lot of that sorted out. I think it’ll improve the efficiency with which we can manage product development and products in general, as we get into this one source of truth.”
CTI decided they needed PLM and researched different vendors, viewing demos, presentations and posing questions of each. In the end, the functionality and user interface of Centric PLM won CTI over. Thiel says, “It is modern and it looks familiar to people. Being able to drag and drop things to create graphs and view charts or bring in other columns of data is simple and user-friendly.”
To boost efficiency, an objective is to get all product developers using the tool. Says Thiel, “We’re hoping that with Centric’s interface, we’ll be able to really encourage user adoption; that it’ll become our R&D developers go-to place to do work on a day-to-day basis and not a chore where you’re re-entering information at the end of a project, just to get that nutrition statement or regulatory approval.”
Another priority is to consolidate and standardize names and numbers for ingredients across the company, giving procurement accurate volumes, which they can then use to negotiate better pricing from ingredient suppliers.
Centric PLM will be used for product development, quality, regulatory, specifications, project management, finance. Thiel says, “We’re looking to have our Stage Gate process operational in PLM.”
President and CEO of Centric Software, Chris Groves says, “We are excited that CTI Foods has chosen Centric PLM for their business. The formulation, specification management and of course, workflows, will drive efficiency into the product development process after implementation, for which we will be there every step of the way.”
About CTI Foods
For over a decade, CTI Foods has served the restaurant and industrial ingredient industries with proteins, soups, sauces and dressing innovations through our USDA-approved production facilities in Texas, Idaho, California, Kentucky and Iowa.
Their experienced and creative staff of classically trained culinary and technical R&D professionals is the driving force at CTI Foods. Continually seeking inspiration in global flavors and techniques, we’re passionate about innovating in ways to keep you ahead of the trends. We want to know your business, your customers, your operations and distribution systems. Then, we think holistically, beyond single components, concepting entire menu items.
They create a palatable difference that sets your brand above and apart. Whether they match or reformulate items you currently menu or develop something exciting and new, CTI Foods partners with you to craft custom, proprietary products.
For more information, visit www.ctifoods.com.
About Centric Software
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a product concept to launch platform for consumer goods such as fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics, cosmetics & personal care and food & beverage. Centric Software’s flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric PLM, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Visual Boards offer highly visual, touch-screen experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Planning is an innovative, cloud-native, augmented-intelligence solution delivering end-to-end retail planning to maximize retail and wholesale business performance. Centric Pricing, powered by StyleSage, is an AI-driven market insight platform for data-informed decision-making on pricing and product assortments to maximize revenue and margins. Among many other market-driven innovations, Centric Software is widely known for its connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems, including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com and more, in addition to creative tools such as Adobe Illustrator, a host of 3D CAD connectors and sustainability tools, such as Higg. Centric Software has the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry.
Centric Software is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, 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 list several times. Centric Software also received five excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan over the past decade.
For more information, visit www.centricsoftware.com.
