Image By Courtesy of CENTRIC SOFTWARE
CAMPBELL, Calif., February 25, 2025 – Centric Software®, the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is excited to announce that it has signed an agreement to acquire Contentserv, a leading provider of product information management (PIM) and product experience management (PXM) solutions for an enterprise value of EUR 220 million.
Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, price and sell products such as apparel, fashion, home, footwear, sporting goods, consumer electronics, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Founded in Germany in 2000, Contentserv enables fast-moving consumer goods and other companies to create and manage product content intuitively and effectively by means of AI to optimize consumer experiences across all digital sales channels.
With Contentserv solutions, retailers, brands and manufacturers are able to execute strategies such as more or simply better product offers, regions and sales channels for increased product sell-through.
With over 1600 customers in 90 countries, Contentserv users have reported ROI such as a 30% reduction in time to market, 70% faster catalog creation, 75% more accurate product information and increased sales channel coverage in more languages.
Fashion and consumer goods brands and retailers continue to pivot around changing consumer trends and constantly evolving stock keeping units (SKUs) while also diversifying sales channels including own-stores, own e-commerce sites, marketplaces and social media.
Harnessing and leveraging product information from inception through to commercialization are critical steps that not only reduce time to market, improve market success and also ensure accuracy for compliance labeling.
Consumer loyalty is also increased via contextualized and personalized brand experiences.
“At Contentserv, we don’t just manage product data—we transform it into seamless, high-converting product experiences that drive revenue,” explains Michael Kugler, CEO of Contentserv. “This data flows in from multiple sources and formats and consumers expect accurate, rich and engaging product experiences, anytime, anywhere and across every conceivable channel and touchpoint.
“Manufacturers and retailers strive to continuously refine and optimize product presentation based on insights from consumers, competitors and marketplaces. Contentserv meets these challenges with our AI-powered Product Experience Cloud (PXC), transforming product data into real revenue,” Kugler states.
“We are thrilled to welcome Contentserv to the Centric Software family. Both companies share a customer-focused, innovation culture,” says Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software. “By integrating Contentserv into the Centric family of solutions—from PLM to planning to competitive market intelligence, pricing & inventory optimization and visual boards— brands, retailers and manufacturers can seamlessly turn product content into enriched, market-ready experiences that drive engagement and conversion.”
Groves concludes, “In today’s competitive market, time to market and product experience go hand-in-hand. Together with Contentserv, our joint innovations will ensure that the moment a product is developed, it’s enriched, optimized and ready to convert.”
The transaction is due to close in the coming weeks subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions for a transaction of this nature.
Contentserv (https://www.contentserv.com/)
Contentserv is the leading provider of a Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) cloud.
The company enables brand manufacturers and retailers to manage their product content intuitively and efficiently by means of AI and to optimize the customer experience across all digital sales channels.
Contentserv’s cloud solution ensures more traffic to product pages, higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction, improved time to value, and optimized ROI.
More than 1,500 brands in 89 countries trust Contentserv with their product content. Contentserv GmbH was founded in Germany in 2000 and is headquartered in Rohrbach/Ilm near Munich.
With 14 global offices in Europe, the USA, and Asia, 250 employees, and industry-leading partners, the company continues to expand. Contentserv was recognized in The Forrester Wave Q4 2023: Product Information Management as a Strong Performer and included as a top 20 vendor in Gartner’s 2025 Market Guide for PIM solutions.
Centric Software® (centricsoftware.com)
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides an innovative and AI-enabled product concept-to-replenishment platform for retailers, brands and manufacturers of all sizes.
As experts in fashion, luxury, footwear, outdoor, home and related goods like cosmetics & personal care as well as multi-category retail, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.
Centric PLM™, the leading PLM solution for fashion, outdoor, footwear and private label, optimizes product execution from ideation to development, sourcing and manufacture, realizing up to 50% improvement in productivity and a 60% decrease in time to market.
Centric Planning™ is an innovative, cloud-native, AI solution delivering end-to-end planning capabilities to maximize retail and wholesale business performance, including SKU optimization, resulting in an up to 110% increase in margins.
Centric Pricing & Inventory™ leverages AI to drive margins and boost revenues by up to 18% via price and inventory optimization from pre-season to in-season to season completion.
Centric Market Intelligence™ is an AI-driven platform giving insights into consumer trends, competitor offers and pricing to boost competitively and get closer to the consumer, with an up to 12% increase in average initial price point.
Centric Visual Boards™ pivot actionable data in a visual-first orientation to ensure robust, consumer-right assortments and product offers, dramatically decreasing assortment development cycle time.
Centric Software’s market-driven, best-of-breed solutions have the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, appearing regularly in world-leading analyst reports and research.
There's a persistent myth in parts of the industry that sustainability compliance is something that happens upstream - a supplier issue, a sourcing issue, a problem for someone else's department.
The webinar dismantled that assumption convincingly. Marketing teams sit squarely in the firing line.
Every claim on a hangtag, website, product name or Instagram caption now falls under regulatory scrutiny. A brand name suggesting an "eco collection," a product description claiming "sustainable materials," a carousel post about carbon neutrality - all of it counts as a communication subject to the same rules as formal labelling. This is a cross-functional compliance challenge that touches data teams, supplier relationships, legal counsel and brand communications simultaneously.
The Ecommerce Leadership Summit North brought together retail and ecommerce leaders in Manchester to discuss the challenges, opportunities and commercial decisions shaping the industry.
Across the day's sessions, speakers explored the future of retail profitability, the growing importance of verifiable product data in AI-driven commerce, the realities of building and scaling brands, and how businesses can protect their margins without compromising customer value. From the discussions on stage to the experiences shared by founders, here are the key insights from this year's summit.
The State of Retail 2027: What Will Separate the Winners from Everyone Else?
This is not simply a matter of faster machines.
It is a question of whether your production model - technology stack, workflow discipline, and quality control - is genuinely built for the realities of club and event merchandise.
Those realities are unforgiving: brand-perfect colour, flawless personalisation, licensing compliance, and turnaround measured in hours rather than weeks.
Colour Separation: The Craft Digital Textile Design Shouldn’t Forget
Textile designer Stephan Alker draws on more than 40 years in the industry, going back to his start at Transfertex in 1980, to trace how colour separation moved from drum scanners, hand-retouched films and engraved gravure cylinders to fully digital workflows.
He argues that this production knowledge still matters in the age of digital printing, because properly separated designs give brands far more freedom.
The Path Foward: Connect Every Link:
Design, colour, workflow, production, data. Each link now depends on the one before it, and the printers who will lead the market are those who strengthen the whole chain, not just the machinery at its centre.
So, this autumn, ask the bigger question on your own shop floor.
Not "Which printer?" but "How well does my business connect demand, design and production?"
Rebés's story isn't one of nostalgia - It's a working blueprint for how heritage manufacturers can stay indispensable in a market that rewards speed, certification, and specificity in equal measure. Four million metres of stock mean nothing without the digital printing capability to turn it into something distinctive.
A 150-year name means nothing without the R&D discipline to win a tender for antistatic, carbon-fibre-infused uniform fabric on the first attempt.
Image Credit: Tejidos Rebé
What if the next dress you wore never touched the factory floor?
This is no longer a fringe experiment. It is a maturing production model, backed by genuine material science, real circularity, and an AI-assisted workflow that is becoming more accessible by the month.
Her advice to designers and brands alike is refreshingly practical: start small, get hands-on with an accessible 3D printer, and build fluency before the technology becomes table stakes. The businesses that treat this moment with curiosity, rather than scepticism, will be the ones shaping fashion's next decade rather than reacting to it.
The 2027 FESPA Awards are now open for entry, and the message to businesses across textiles, apparel, interiors and beyond is simple: your work deserves recognition. Every gold winner featured here started in the same place every entrant does - with a project they believed was worth submitting.
As the only independent awards programme with 18 categories dedicated to print and signage, FESPA offers a genuinely global stage, with shortlisted entries displayed at FESPA Global Print Expo in Spring 2027.
Colour Is Too Important to Leave to Chance
Print will always be the part of the garment people see first.
But the sum of all parts — the fabric, the trims, the fasteners, the finish — is what determines whether a design actually delivers on its promise. Brands that continue to treat colour as a single creative decision, rather than a coordinated technical discipline spanning their entire supply chain, will keep paying for it in re-dips, delays, and disappointed design teams.
A Century of Textiles, and an Ever-changing World
Few companies can trace their roots back more than a century and still count themselves among their industry's innovators. Texia, headquartered in Monistrol de Montserrat, Spain, is one of them.
But the story of Texia is not simply one of longevity.
It is a story of continual reinvention. As the textile industry has grown more global and competitive, Texia has repeatedly reshaped its business, investing in technology, developing its own brands, and placing sustainability at the centre of its mission. In doing so, it offers a compelling example of how a heritage manufacturer can lead rather than follow through a period of profound industry change. Image Credit: Texia
New York City – USA – November 2026 – NedGraphics has announced two connected updates within its NedGraphics 2027 release, bringing its licensing systems and 3D design tools together under a single, unified identity. The changes are designed to simplify how fashion and design teams manage access across their software ecosystem, reducing friction for distributed and hybrid teams.
Milano – Italy – November 2026 – Lectra, the global technology leader dedicated to fashion, automotive and furniture industries, today announced that Missoni, the iconic Italian fashion house, has successfully deployed Kubix Link PLM to centralise product data, strengthen cross-department collaboration and integrate its supply chain. The initiative has delivered operational time savings of up to 60%, reinforcing the growing industry need for connected, data-driven product lifecycle management
London, UK – November 2026 – ARTS THREAD, in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, has announced Grace Holden as the winner of the Textiles – Print/Embroidery category at the Global Creative Graduate Showcase 2026. Holden, a graduate of the Design for Textiles BA (Hons) programme at Heriot-Watt University, was recognised for her project "Stories in Bloom," which explores themes of belonging and memory through layered, nature-inspired visual narratives.
PARSIPPANY, N.J., U.S.A. – November 9th, 2026 – Sun Chemical has released its sixteenth annual Sustainability Report, detailing measurable progress across its global operations, product portfolio, supply chain and workforce while reinforcing the company’s commitment to transparent, data-driven sustainability performance.
The report reflects Sun Chemical’s continued work to embed sustainability into business strategy and daily decision-making. Guided by the “five Rs” framework – Reuse, Reduce, Renew, Recycle and Redesign – the company is advancing resource efficiency, circular product design and responsible value-chain practices
Willerby – East Yorkshire – UK – November 2026 – Agfa Inkjet Solutions has announced a major double investment from Image Data Group, with the installation of two new presses: a Panthera and a Tauro. The move marks a significant expansion of production capacity for the UK-based print specialist and reinforces Agfa's position as a trusted partner for high-performance inkjet technology.
The dual investment sees both machines operating side by side at Image Data Group's facility, delivering a substantial boost in production capacity, productivity, and operational flexibility. For Agfa, the announcement represents more than a sale—it reflects a deepening relationship with a customer committed to scaling its capabilities for the future.
Dorking – UK – November 2026 – FESPA has announced the launch of MERCH by FESPA, a new event bringing together the people, ideas and opportunities shaping the merchandise industry. The event will be co-located with FESPA Global Print Expo at Messe Munich, Germany, from 6 to 9 April 2027.
MERCH by FESPA will spotlight the fast-growing world of branded merchandise and product personalisation, spanning sectors as diverse as music, sports, entertainment and the creator economy. The event is designed to connect printers, brands, merchandise professionals and creators, offering a dedicated space to explore the trends, technologies and creative possibilities redefining the industry.
Peterborough, UK – November 2026 – Snuggle Ltd, a print-on-demand and trade print fulfilment specialist, has outlined how its 40,000 sq ft operation is prepared to support brands through the upcoming peak trading season, as retailers brace for a surge in Black Friday and Christmas demand.
With peak season fast approaching, Snuggle Ltd is urging businesses to scrutinise the reliability of their fulfilment partners before committing to high-volume trading periods. The company says that too many brands discover the limitations of their supply chain only when it is too late, risking stock shortages, quality lapses, and reputational damage during the busiest weeks of the year.
Lyon, France – November 2026 – Epson France has confirmed its renewed partnership with C!Print as a Gold Sponsor, reaffirming its commitment to driving innovation across the print and visual communication industry. The company will return to the 2027 edition of the trade show to showcase its latest advancements to professionals in the sector.
Among the innovations on display will be ContourJet, Epson's newly unveiled technology for direct inkjet printing on three-dimensional objects.
Altham Lancashire – November 2026 – Soyang Europe Ltd has been awarded Carbon Reduced Operation Certification by CarbonQuota for 2025, marking a significant milestone in the company's commitment to reducing its environmental impact. The certification follows a year of measurable progress, with carbon intensity per full-time employee falling by 9% compared with 2024.
Bergamo, Italy – November 2026 – Electronics For Imaging (EFI) welcomed customers, partners, and industry professionals to its Customer Experience Center in Bergamo, Italy, for EFI Ignite EMEA, a flagship event dedicated to the future of industrial textile printing and display graphics. The event drew representatives from 15 companies and more than 30 VIP guests, underscoring the growing demand for innovation in digital print
Emmerich am Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen – November 2026 – Brother Industrial Printing EMEA has announced the launch of PT 8158, a new pretreatment solution designed to elevate direct-to-garment (DTG) printing through improved sustainability, enhanced print quality, and a better production environment. The launch reflects the company's ongoing commitment to driving meaningful change across the textile printing industry.
Uxbridge – UK – November 2026 – Perfect Colours has announced the release of Onyx 25.5, the latest update to its industry-leading print workflow software. The new version introduces a range of enhancements designed to help print businesses work faster, smarter, and more sustainably.
The upgrade comes as the print industry continues to grapple with rising demands for efficiency and environmental responsibility. Onyx 25.5 has been engineered to meet these challenges head-on, equipping print professionals with the tools they need to stay ahead of the curve.
Dubai, UAE – November 2026 – Heimtextil is strengthening its presence in the Middle East's interior design and hospitality sectors, partnering for the first time with Downtown Design, the region's leading design fair held as part of Dubai Design Week. Together with Milan-based design platform Alcova, Heimtextil is presenting the Heimtextil Trends 27/28 "The Performance of Everyday Living" in Dubai from 4 to 8 November. The compact presentation, featuring film, text and visual elements, offers the international and regional design community fresh insight into the key trend themes shaping the industry's future.
GREEN GRADS at YORKTON WORKSHOPS
Regenerative design, waste reduction and reuse, biomaterials, preserving crafts, rescuing species, nurturing nature and more: eco-projects at the cutting edge.
25 new GREEN GRADS - making 300 GREEN GRADS in total.
Makers Innovators Activists
Saturday November 14th, 11-7PM | Sunday November 15th, 11-6PM | 1-3 Yorkton Street, London E2 8NH
Admission free
Sponsored by Pearson Lloyd, hosting the show in their gallery for the third time.
Las Vegas, NV – Monotech Systems Limited, a globally-acclaimed Indian manufacturer and one-stop solution provider for the printing and packaging industry, has been chosen by Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems (PCS) as its India distribution partner. The agreement, signed by Mr TP Jain, Managing Director of Monotech Systems Limited, and Mr Stuart Fox, CEO of Kongsberg PCS, was finalised during Printing United Expo 2026, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Under the terms of the partnership, Monotech Systems Limited is authorised to distribute the full range of Kongsberg X and C Series digital cutting systems across India, bringing precision cutting technology to the country's fast-evolving signage and display industry at a time when producers face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more sustainable, and more customised output.
The Lancashire print specialist is extending its print-on-demand model from wall coverings into textiles with the Epson Monna Lisa ML-13000.
Shrewsbury, UK – November 2026 – Big Value Banners, a UK-based manufacturer of custom printed banners and signage, has chosen the Veloblade Nexus from Vivid Laminating Technologies Ltd to support its growing production capabilities. The announcement follows a period of evaluation, culminating in staff training completed today in Shropshire.
Exclusive Mimaki distributor, Hybrid Services will host two Mimaki Technology Taster Days at its Crewe showroom this November, giving businesses the opportunity to explore their next printing investment, diversification or upgrade in a relaxed, informal setting.
Taking place on Thursday 12th and 19th November, from 10am - 4pm, the events are designed for companies at any stage of their research, including those still considering which direction to take. Visitors can explore the Mimaki range, see printed applications and discuss their ideas with Hybrid’s product specialists.
Milan, 4 November 2026 – The 37th edition of Viscom, the international exhibition dedicated to visual communication, has concluded in Milan, debuting its new Exhibition & Conference format at the Allianz MiCo Convention Centre. The refreshed venue and identity reflect the transformations underway across the industry, delivering two dynamic days that brought together 5,189 visitors and more than 90 exhibitors to explore the sector's emerging opportunities.
Wednesday, November 04, 2026 - Aarhus, DK & Milwaukee, WI — To provide the proper level of support for customers in the Americas, Mikkelsen Innovation ApS has registered and started its U.S. subsidiary, FASTSEWN, Inc., located in Milwaukee, WI. In addition to the U.S. sales and management team, Steve Aranoff (Chief Business Officer) and Jim Manelski (Director of Sales, Americas), whom many in the industry already know, industry veteran Ranjan Singh has now joined as COO for FASTSEWN, Inc. Part of the engineering team is also in Milwaukee, bringing the number of U.S. employees to six so far.
Oswestry, UK – November 2026 – China Print Supplies (CPS) has confirmed it can supply ink, spare parts and servicing for Gongzheng printers across the UK, following the voluntary liquidation of Your Embroidery Services (YES) on 15 October. YES notified customers by email on 20 October that it could no longer provide servicing, technical assistance or customer support.
Gongzheng was one of the brands YES supplied in the UK, covering UV flatbed, eco solvent and UV DTF machines. The sudden withdrawal of support has left an unknown number of owners without a clear path to consumables, parts or engineering help, raising concerns about machine downtime across the sector.
CPS already supplies Gongzheng equipment and holds the supplier relationships needed to source consumables and parts for any Gongzheng machine in the country, regardless of where it was originally purchased.
South Normanton - UK – November 2026 - As the out-of-home advertising market continues its rapid expansion, Sun Chemical is driving the industry's shift toward water-based ink technology with its Streamline™ Toccata range, engineered to meet the rising demand for high-quality, durable graphics while reducing environmental impact.
London, UK – November 2nd 2026 – Spandex UK has today announced a new partnership with HP, bringing HP Latex printing technology to its customers across the UK. The collaboration marks a significant expansion of Spandex's large-format hardware offering, giving its customers greater choice across print technologies.
The initial line-up under this partnership will include the HP Latex 630, 730 and 830 series. These additions build on Spandex's existing portfolio, reinforcing its commitment to equipping sign and display professionals with the tools they need to stay competitive in an evolving industry.
Malvern – Worcestershire – November 2026 Vivid Laminating Technologies has announced that PB Signs, a leading UK print and signage specialist, has chosen its multi-award-winning Velobade Nexus for use across its production operations. The decision follows a thorough review of the market, with PB Signs selecting the Velobade Nexus as the finishing solution best suited to its high standards of craftsmanship.
Speciality print leaders from five Southern European countries will meet in Porto next month for the eleventh FESPA Southern European Congress, taking place on 11–12 November at HF Ipanema Porto, Portugal.
The two-day event, which is organised by five FESPA member associations – FESPA France, FESPA Italia, FESPA España, APIGRAF (Portugal) and the FESPA Hellas Association (Greece) – gives members of the community in Southern Europe the opportunity to benchmark their own strategies against peers facing similar conditions, as well as compare notes with neighbouring markets on customer expectations, workforce shortages, investment and new technology.
Batley, West Yorkshire – October 2026 – Roaches International, a member of the British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA), has dispatched its largest integrated order for textile laboratory equipment to date.
A total of 19 testing machines weighing more than two tonnes have been delivered for a new laboratory being established by Indonesia's Alia Digital Printex, underscoring the British manufacturer's capability to supply complete testing facilities rather than individual instruments alone.
Mortsel, Belgium – October 29th 2026 – Agfa Inkjet Solutions has announced Experience Day 2026, a hands-on event dedicated to demonstrating how advanced inkjet printing and precision finishing can work together within a single, integrated workflow.
The event will take place on Thursday, 26 November 2026, from 09:00 to 15:00 at Agfa Headquarters in Mortsel, Belgium.
Developed in partnership with Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems, Experience Day 2026 will give print service providers a first-hand look at how combining print and finishing technologies can boost productivity, broaden application possibilities, and open up new business opportunities across sectors including signage, display, packaging, and corrugated production.
Balrothery, Ireland – October 2026 – Retink Graphics has added a second Epson SureColor R5000L latex printer to its Balrothery production floor, supplied by digitalprint.ie.
The investment follows strong returns from the company's first R5000L, which the team says paid for itself before they decided to expand.
Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg – October 2026 - The CHT Group has announced the expansion of its dyes portfolio with two new additions: BEMACID Brilliant Blue F-WN for polyamide and wool, and BEZAKTIV Solar Yellow ONE for flexible dyeing processes.
The launch reinforces CHT Group's commitment to delivering high-performance, sustainable colorant solutions for the global textile industry.
Both new dyes address growing demand among textile manufacturers for products that combine color brilliance, process reliability, and responsible formulation.
Staffordshire, UK – October 2026 – Staffordshire Signs & Graphics Ltd has announced the installation of a new DLI-3325 flatbed printer, supplied by China Print Supplies UK Ltd.
The investment marks a significant step forward for the business, enhancing its production capabilities and expanding the range of signage solutions it can offer customers.
The installation follows months of careful planning, with the new machine now in place and undergoing fine-tuning and staff training ahead of full commissioning