Leading Indian Retailer Trent Ltd. Selects Dassault Systemes PLM for Fast Fashion

ENOVIA V6 Will Improve Productivity and Help Maximize Supply Chain Efficiency

Hong Kong (Prime Source Forum) - March 31, 2009 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that Trent Ltd., a Tata Group company and operator of Trent Westside, one of India’s largest and fastest growing retailers, will deploy the ENOVIA Apparel Accelerator™ for Design & Development.

“As a market leader, it is imperative that we are able to stay ahead of the latest consumer trends. Our ability to understand what’s happening at the point of sale and then effectively work with our suppliers and partners to translate this into new designs for subsequent seasons is  crucial to our long term success,” said Gaurav Mahajan, Head of Buying at Trent Ltd. “Based on our initial experience with ENOVIA V6 we have been impressed by Dassault Systemes ability to quickly deploy a PLM solution that provides us with greater visibility into the supply chain and an ability to track and manage costs and changes as necessary.”

With 38 Westside stores in India and plans to expand rapidly in 2010, Trent Ltd. has to ensure that it can manage its margin and profitability by rapidly responding to changing market conditions and consumer trends.  A key element of its long term success will be based on how effectively the company is able to work with the core elements in their ecosystem including internal resources, partners, buyers, sourcing offices and suppliers. The ENOVIA Accelerator, which will take just nine weeks to implement, will integrate with their existing ERP systems to provide Trent Ltd. with greater visibility into the new product development process. This approach will enable the company to reduce sample development time and increase seasonal options by leveraging the market knowledge and design capabilities of key suppliers while also tracking commodity prices to negotiate better costs with them.

“In order to seize new opportunities and stay ahead of competition, retailers and apparel companies are starting to address the need for a more comprehensive approach to working collaboratively with their key suppliers. There’s no doubt that the Indian RFA industry is extremely ambitious and companies are looking for the opportunity to expand into new markets.  They understand that, as part of the process, sustainable and cost-efficient business can only be achieved by managing the product lifecycle from sample development to quality control,” said Suman Bose, Country Director, Dassault Systèmes India, Dassault Systèmes. “We are pleased that Trent Ltd., a leader in the Indian retail market, has selected our solution as a key element to managing their long term success.”

In addition to Westside which was founded in 1998, Trent Ltd. also established Star India Bazaar in 2004, a chain of hypermarkets with stores in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore. In 2005 Trent Ltd. rounded out its portfolio of brands with the acquisition of Landmark, India’s largest book and music retailer.

The ENOVIA Apparel Accelerator™ for Design & Development is based on the Dassault Systèmes V6 platform, a single PLM platform for managing product lifecycle business processes that will enable customers to implement industry standards and best practices. Designed as an out-of-the box solution, the Apparel Accelerator enables companies to rapidly deploy a state of the art, scalable enterprise solution for apparel design and development that can help them go to market quicker by taking products from trend to design to sourcing to manufacturing to the customer within a single, collaborative environment.