Just Food Excellence Awards 2024: Centric Software

Centric Software won in three categories, Business Expansion, Environmental, and Research and Development (R&D), in the 2024 Just Food Excellence Awards.

The company won in the Business Expansion category for adding a significant number of customers from the food and beverage (F&B) industry globally for its digital solutions, signing multiple high-value deals, during the award consideration period.

In the Environmental category, the company was recognised for its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool, Centric PLM™, which not only aids customers in the F&B industry to take sustainability initiatives but also enables higher traceability, ensures products are compliant to ever-changing regulations and, overall, supports them in developing green products and in green sourcing.

The company’s agility in developing and integrating features into existing products for the F&B industry customers through a robust development team has earned it recognition in the Research and Development category at the 2024 Just Food Excellence Awards.

Impressive expansion in the Food domain

Since 2019, Centric Software has significantly expanded its presence in the food and beverage industry, doubling its workforce from 400 to 950, with a substantial number of hires occurring during the award consideration period.

The company’s digital solutions have been adopted by multiple brands, retailers and producers of all sizes and the PLM solution, in particular, has been widely adopted for its ability to enhance efficiency and agility in product development.

During the award consideration period, Chile’s Wild Foods and China’s SNS notably reduced their time-to-market by 35% and product development cycle time by 38%, respectively, through Centric’s digital solutions. European companies such as NHCO Nutrition® Laboratories in France and MeEat in Finland partnered with Centric to streamline processes and drive innovation, particularly in the plant-based food sector.

SPC in Australia and Great Kitchens in the US utilised Centric PLM™ to digitalise and improve product development efficiency, while Brazil’s Prodiet Medical Nutrition revolutionised product management in clinical nutrition with Centric’s help. Additionally, Qinhai Food in China enhanced its R&D competitiveness in the plant-based market.

Centric’s fast-expanding list of global clients reflects the company’s impact and the industry’s confidence in its PLM solution.

Nurturing sustainability in the Food sector with PLM technology

Centric Software’s PLM solution has been recognised for its contribution to environmental sustainability, a testament to the growing importance of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. As European regulations tighten, companies are increasingly required to demonstrate transparency and traceability in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Centric Software’s PLM is a digital solution that addresses these needs, enabling companies to quickly generate reports on sustainable sourcing and traceability, with all product information consolidated in one place.

Centric PLM™ connects teams, streamlines planning, and empowers sustainability initiatives. By having all their product data in one place, Centric PLM™ facilitates effective collaboration with suppliers and manages the entire product lifecycle, from development to compliance to shelf. This integration ensures that data such as formulations, images, and ingredient listings, supplier information, costing, packaging and more are easily accessible, reducing the time spent on data re-entry and minimising errors. The system’s ability to provide 100% visibility into product information and workflows allows companies to make greener product development decisions, ultimately leading to more eco-friendly products reaching the market faster and better transparency delivered to the consumer.

The environmental benefits of Centric PLM™ are further exemplified by its partnership with MeEat, a Finnish plant-based food tech startup, announced in September 2023. MeEat’s mission to shift the meat industry towards plant-based production aligns with the environmental goals of reducing the carbon footprint associated with animal farming. By utilising Centric PLM, MeEat can streamline innovation processes, manage data more efficiently, and reduce the risk of mistakes. This partnership highlights the role of digital solutions in supporting the development of sustainable food systems.

MeEat’s strategy to grow its PLM project in stages reflects a sustainable approach to business growth, with Centric Software providing the necessary tools and expertise to support this expansion.

R&D innovations to enhance the food sector efficiency

Centric Software’s relentless pursuit of improvement through its innovation-led R&D has led to the launch of a connected suite of product solutions, designed to enhance the go-to-market process for consumer goods. This suite promises a compelling return on investment and a swift value realisation, particularly for sectors such as food & beverage, where time to market and cost optimisation are critical. The suite’s AI-driven, scalable solutions are tailored to meet the dynamic needs of the industry, including sustainability and compliance objectives.

Centric’s R&D achievements in the food and beverage sector have been particularly noteworthy. All upgrades to their Centric PLM™ for Food & Beverage have been customer-driven, with new functionalities such as ‘variety packs’ creation, enhanced ‘where-used’ capabilities, and improved label formatting retention. These innovations have been embraced by a diverse range of clients, from large organisations to vegan startups, demonstrating the versatility and impact of the company’s R&D on the food industry.

Furthermore, Centric’s partnerships and integrations with industry platforms, such as Adobe for packaging and artwork approvals, Genesis Food R&D programme, and FoodChain ID, have further enhanced their R&D capabilities. These collaborations provide access to extensive regulatory libraries and databases, enabling Centric PLM™ users to navigate the complex regulatory landscape with ease. The integration with FoodChain ID, in particular, creates a comprehensive PLM, formulation, quality, and regulatory solution for the food industry, streamlining the product development lifecycle and ensuring compliance.

Company Profile

Silicon Valley-based Centric Software provides an innovative product concept-to-customer platform for producers, brands and retailers of all sizes in the food & beverage industry, food service and grocery retail sectors. Centric Software works closely with customers to achieve more efficient project management and safer product development, execute a competitive retail and product strategy, increase agility, speed time to market and get closer to consumers, resulting in maximised revenues and margins.

All solutions are highly configurable and built hand-in-hand with market-leading companies:

• Centric PLM™ streamlines product development, procurement, formulation, specification management, regulatory compliance, nutrition labelling, quality assurance, packaging & artwork proofing, sustainability, and product portfolio management.

• Centric Visual Boards™ improves team collaboration and optimises range category management to get closer to consumers, and be more competitive.

• Centric Planning™ delivers best-in-class, easy-to-use and visually driven financial, merchandise and product portfolio planning as well as store & vendor forecasting for seamless and fast, pre and in-season execution.

• Centric Pricing and Inventory™ leverages AI to drive margin and revenue improvement by influencing demand via price and inventory optimisation.

• Centric Market Intelligence™ is a market insights platform for data-informed decision-making on competitor offers and pricing. Provides consumer trends and buying behaviour as well.

Centric Software proudly maintains a 100% go-live rate. Awarded for excellence by Just Food 3 times, by Frost & Sullivan several times and the recipient of many other regional accolades, Centric Software is proud to provide the best solution, backed by the best team and to partner with the best customers.

Centric Software is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions.

Centric Software is a registered trademark of Centric Software, Inc. in the US and other countries. Centric PLM, Centric Planning, Centric Pricing & Inventory, Centric Market Intelligence, and Centric Visual Boards are Trademarks of Centric Software, Inc. All third-party trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.