The preliminary transaction, signed on July 19, 2012 has been finalized and closed today, on time and on budget, following completion of all agreed conditions precedent.

For more details of the acquisition click here:

UK fashion retailer Hobbs starts implementing TXT MAPLE LAKE’s ‘out-of-the box’ merchandise planning solution

September 2012 – TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd., the software provider for specialty retailers, is pleased to announce that Hobbs, the contemporary British fashion designer and retailer of women’s apparel, is to implement its ‘out-of-the-box’ QuickAssortment planning solution to improve its planning process, enable better financial control and more targeted range assortments for its online, wholesale and store channels. The preconfigured software is expected to be fully implemented within five to six months, instead of the industry norm of approximately two years.

Hobbs’ Alison Reupke, Head of Product Merchandising, said: “As we diversify into new channels we need a suitable technology solution to support our business and future growth. We look forward to using this new product and the benefits it will bring to standardizing Hobbs’ processes.”

Mark Stone, CEO at TXT MAPLE LAKE added: “Many retailers still rely on Excel spreadsheets for very complicated buying decisions that can make or break them, so we’re delighted that by standardizing our planning tools we’re able to offer quick-fix solutions.”

Improved flexibility and visibility in planning enables companies to tap into the growing trend for constantly changing inventories, as customers are increasingly demanding new products, up-to-the minute styles and fashion-led merchandise. It also gives the ability to shift from slow-selling lines to more popular products, increasing sales and reducing costly over-stocks and markdowns.

The software works by taking sales data from existing systems to automatically produce a ‘hierarchy of needs’ that identifies the most profitable lines: whether for individual stores, online or international sales channels. Users can see, at the touch of a button, a forecast of stock and sales and the impact of, say, ordering more A-line dresses, or changing a particular supplier. It shows the ideal product mix and volumes before actually buying or allocating to stores, said Stone. Alerts can even flag up anything likely to be a concern, such as low profit margin items, or missed sales due to stock-outs.

About TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd.

TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd. is a software and services provider for specialty retailers worldwide. The company offers QuickAssortment, QuickAllocation and QuickAnalytics™, a set of applications that refines merchandise & assortment management, allocation planning all of the comprehensive planning requirements of a modern multi channel business. The company’s customers represent 10,000-plus retail locations, including adidas Group, Aeropostale, Arcadia Group, Barneys New York, Columbia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Steve Madden, to name but a few. TXT MAPLE LAKE, a privately-held company formed in July 2000, is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. TXT MAPLE LAKE is a certified Microsoft partner. More information is available at www.maplelake.com.

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“We are very satisfied with the economic results of the first half 2012, with surging revenues and net profit from operation at almost 10% of revenues. The recent important acquisition of TXT MAPLE LAKE will allow TXT to make a further strategic jump on International markets”., says Alvise Braga Illa, the Group’s Chairman.

To read the full set of results, click here:
http://www.txtgroup.com/Documents/Press_Release_9_August_2012-ENG.pdf

For more information about TXT, please visit:
http://www.txtgroup.com

In line with its strategy to become the worldwide leader of Integrated Retail Planning solutions TXT will acquire Maple Lake, extending its global reach, expanding its practice of Merchandise Planning experts and benefitting from advanced assortment planning and allocation functionalities available in the Maple Lake suite of products

TXT today announced that it has entered a binding agreement for the acquisition of Maple Lake. Maple Lake is a leading vendor of Assortment Planning and Allocation solutions for Specialty Retailers with Head Quarters in Toronto, Canada, and offices in the UK and Australia. The TXT MAPLE LAKE acquisition is in line with the TXT strategy to become the leading provider of integrated retail planning solutions worldwide. The combined entity will be able to offer to its clients:

• Global Coverage: with a strong presence in North America, Europe and Australia and a partner network to serve the  rest of the world.
• Leading Retail Planning Consulting Practice: the combined team is expected to be the largest in terms of dedicated retail planning consultants, with a unique combination of real life business process knowledge and experience as well as  advanced technical skills.
• Advanced Retail Planning Solution:  The TXT Integrated Retail Planning solution, already considered a worldwide best in class retail planning solution by customers and industry analysts, will be further improved, leveraging the advanced assortment planning and allocation capabilities available in the TXT MAPLE LAKE solution.

All of the existing Maple Lake products will continue to be commercially available, evolved and supported for a minimum of 5 years.

Marco Guida, TXT CEO, commented: “We’ve achieved an exciting milestone and an important and consistent next step in our strategy of becoming the worldwide leader of Integrated Retail Planning. We shall now be able to offer globally, solutions and services that have already proven to bring substantial benefits to Fashion and Retail leaders. We expect that the value generated for our customers will also continue to drive TXT sales and margins growth.”

Andrea Cencini, EVP Managing Director, added: “I want to extend a warm welcome to Maple Lake clients; we have invested in Maple Lake for the same reasons they selectedMaple Lake: advanced solutions, great people and customer focus.  These are also TXT values and all TXT MAPLE LAKE clients can expect outstanding support and great opportunities to drive additional benefits to their companies in the future.”

Maple Lake President Neil Coulton and Maple Lake CEO Mark Stone have accepted strategic roles in the combined entity.

Neil Coulton commented: “At Maple Lake we are very excited to join the TXT family, we believe that the combination of business skills and the advanced technology available in the combined entity, will drive great benefits to Retail Companies.”

Mark Stone commented: “Retail Planning skills are a scarce resource in the market. Having such a large practice of experts working together is a unique opportunity to improve best practices, and solve some of the most complex retail planning problems. In addition, by combining our knowledge of North American, UK and Continental European retailing, we can help retailers exploit best practices that will drive real business benefits.

The acquisition is subject to the completion of the administrative and accounting procedure and is expected to be finalized by September 15th  , 2012

About TXT -solutions

TXT is a leading provider of integrated and collaborative planning solutions for the Retail, Fashion and Consumer driven sectors. The TXT suite combines planning and intelligence supporting all strategic business processes, including Integrated Retail Planning, Product Lifecycle Management, Sales & Operations Planning and Supplier Collaboration. The company is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (TXT.MI) and prior to the TXT MAPLE LAKE acquisition had over 400 employees and more than 450 customers worldwide, TXT’s headquarters are in Milan, with offices throughout Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom and several partners worldwide. For more information,

http://www.txtgroup.com/

About Maple Lake

TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd. is a leading software and services provider for specialty retailers worldwide. The company offers QuickAssortment, QuickAllocation and QuickAnalytics™, a set of applications that support assortment planning, allocation and ‘Open To Buy’ management to maximize sales and profitability for retail businesses. The company’s customers represent 10,000-plus retail locations globally, including, Aeropostale, Arcadia Group, Barneys New York, Columbia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Steve Madden. TXT MAPLE LAKE was formed in July 2000, and is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia.Maple Lake is a certified Microsoft partner.

http://www.maplelake.com/

For Further Details Please Contact:

TXT e-solutions
Product Marketing Manager
Patrizia Calvia
patrizia.calvia@txtgroup.com

Maple Lake
CMO
Stuart Aldridge
stuart.aldridge@maplelake.com

In line with its strategy to become the worldwide leader of Integrated Retail Planning solutions TXT will acquire Maple Lake, extending its global reach, expanding its practice of Merchandise Planning experts and benefitting from advanced assortment planning and allocation functionalities available in the Maple Lake suite of products

TXT today announced that it has entered a binding agreement for the acquisition of Maple Lake. Maple Lake is a leading vendor of Assortment Planning and Allocation solutions for Specialty Retailers with Head Quarters in Toronto, Canada, and offices in the UK and Australia. The Maple Lake acquisition is in line with the TXT strategy to become the leading provider of integrated retail planning solutions worldwide. The combined entity will be able to offer to its clients:

• Global Coverage: with a strong presence in North America, Europe and Australia and a partner network to serve the rest of the world.
• Leading Retail Planning Consulting Practice: the combined team is expected to be the largest in terms of dedicated retail planning consultants, with a unique combination of real life business process knowledge and experience as well as advanced technical skills.
• Advanced Retail Planning Solution: The TXT Integrated Retail Planning solution, already considered a worldwide best in class retail planning solution by customers and industry analysts, will be further improved, leveraging the advanced assortment planning and allocation capabilities available in the Maple Lake solution.

All of the existing Maple Lake products will continue to be commercially available, evolved and supported for a minimum of 5 years.

Marco Guida, TXT CEO, commented: “We’ve achieved an exciting milestone and an important and consistent next step in our strategy of becoming the worldwide leader of Integrated Retail Planning. We shall now be able to offer globally, solutions and services that have already proven to bring substantial benefits to Fashion and Retail leaders. We expect that the value generated for our customers will also continue to drive TXT sales and margins growth.”

Andrea Cencini, EVP Managing Director, added: “I want to extend a warm welcome to Maple Lake clients; we have invested in Maple Lake for the same reasons they selected Maple Lake: advanced solutions, great people and customer focus. These are also TXT values and all Maple Lake clients can expect outstanding support and great opportunities to drive additional benefits to their companies in the future.”

Maple Lake President Neil Coulton and Maple Lake CEO Mark Stone have accepted strategic roles in the combined entity.

Neil Coulton commented: “At Maple Lake we are very excited to join the TXT family, we believe that the combination of business skills and the advanced technology available in the combined entity, will drive great benefits to Retail Companies.”

Mark Stone commented: “Retail Planning skills are a scarce resource in the market. Having such a large practice of experts working together is a unique opportunity to improve best practices, and solve some of the most complex retail planning problems. In addition, by combining our knowledge of North American, UK and Continental European retailing, we can help retailers exploit best practices that will drive real business benefits.

The acquisition is subject to the completion of the administrative and accounting procedure and is expected to be finalized by September 15th , 2012

About TXT -solutions

TXT is a leading provider of integrated and collaborative planning solutions for the Retail, Fashion and Consumer driven sectors. The TXT suite combines planning and intelligence supporting all strategic business processes, including Integrated Retail Planning, Product Lifecycle Management, Sales & Operations Planning and Supplier Collaboration. The company is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (TXT.MI) and prior to the Maple Lake acquisition had over 400 employees and more than 450 customers worldwide, TXT’s headquarters are in Milan, with offices throughout Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom and several partners worldwide. For more information,

http://www.txtgroup.com/

About Maple Lake

Maple Lake is a leading software and services provider for specialty retailers worldwide. The company offers QuickAssortment, QuickAllocation and QuickAnalytics™, a set of applications that support assortment planning, allocation and ‘Open To Buy’ management to maximize sales and profitability for retail businesses. The company’s customers represent 10,000-plus retail locations globally, including, Aeropostale, Arcadia Group, Barneys New York, Columbia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Steve Madden. Maple Lake was formed in July 2000, and is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. Maple Lake is a certified Microsoft partner.

http://www.maplelake.com/

For Further Details Please Contact:

TXT e-solutions
Product Marketing Manager
Patrizia Calvia
patrizia.calvia@txtgroup.com

Maple Lake
CMO
Stuart Aldridge
stuart.aldridge@maplelake.com

The full list of winners and awards round up can be found here: https://www.emapawards.com/emap/frontend/reg/tOtherPage.csp?pageID=409166&eventID=235&eventID=235&CSPCHD=00000040000032kf8MDv000000VBcUiVDHfXh8UBMex6dTMQ–

Many congratulations to all of the companies involved.

Lakeland starts implementation of TXT MAPLE LAKE merchandise planning software to streamline multi-channel business

February 2012 – Lakeland, the UK’s leading kitchenware retailer with 57 stores and a fast-growing multi-channel business, has started to implement TXT MAPLE LAKE’s merchandise planning solution in a bid to ensure high levels of availability for its customers.

“Expansion and the inherent complexity in managing multiple channels has made us look harder at IT tools that give us more control and visibility in managing stock to sales,” says Matthew Canwell, buying director at Lakeland.

The kitchenware retailer, which carries around 4,000 product lines – everything from kitchen appliances to cooking utensils and cleaning products – has always prided itself on high levels of product availability and customer service.

“We are a customer-centric retailer and so ensuring we have the right stock levels to meet customer demand is key to us,” says Canwell.

The TXT MAPLE LAKE software gives improved visibility of how different departments are performing and what sells when and where. It can be very time consuming analyzing stock and sales on a daily or weekly basis, but the technology helps by automatically identifying any potential gaps on the shelves and highlighting what customers are wanting and highlighting what exactly to buy more of. The TXT MAPLE LAKE QuickAssortment roll-out will be completed by summer 2012.

“With our pedigree of so many successful deliveries at retail fashion businesses, we’re delighted to work with an outstanding housewares brand like Lakeland,” says Bob Jolley, group commercial director, TXT MAPLE LAKE.

About Lakeland
Lakeland offers an unrivalled collection of creative kitchenware, practical ideas for the home and garden, and inspiring gifts from all over the world. It sells innovative products that make life easier, are long-lasting and offer great value for money, with every item backed by an unconditional guarantee. A family-owned business, it was founded in the early 1960s, and has the same strong values of quality and customer care now as when it first started. It trades through 57 stores across the UK and three stores in the Middle East, as well as its home shopping business of website and catalogues.

About TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd.
TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd. is a software and services provider for specialty retailers worldwide. The company offers QuickAssortment, QuickAllocation and QuickAnalytics™, a set of applications that refines assortment management, allocation planning and ‘Open To Buy’ efforts for maximum sales and profitability. The company’s customers represent 10,000-plus retail locations, including adidas Group, Aeropostale, Arcadia Group, Barneys New York, Columbia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Steve Madden. TXT MAPLE LAKE, a privately-held company formed in July 2000, is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. TXT MAPLE LAKE is a certified Microsoft partner. More information is available at www.maplelake.com.

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For more information, please contact:

Phil Worthington
PR Consultant
Email: philip@clear-communication.co.uk
Tel: +33 467 660621

Click here to go straight to the page

Are you an excellent presenter?
Do you have charisma and confidence?
Do you have a knowledge of merchandise and assortment planning practices and / or solutions in a retail environment?
Do you have a wide selection of colorful socks?

You do?  Then you’re in luck, check out our latest vacancy and apply now!

http://maplelake.com/career-opportunities-sales-support-professional-north-america/

C’mon, do it now, it’ll be fun!

Retail software vendor cuts implementation time by over 50% and implementation costs by a further 60% with release of pre-configured software

April 2012 – TXT MAPLE LAKE, the retail software vendor that helps plan best-selling ranges for the likes of the Arcadia Group, Ted Baker, ASoS, adidas Group and Levi Strauss, has just released an ‘out-of-the-box’, pre-configured version of its QuickAssortment merchandise planning solution. The move follows increasing demand among retailers for IT solutions that can be more easily and swiftly adopted into the business, at considerably less cost.

“It can typically take between 12 and 24 months for a retailer to implement new planning technology and see the rewards, this delays the returns and business benefits that the management and end users require,” says Bob Jolley, Group Commercial Director at TXT MAPLE LAKE. “By coming up with a pre-configured solution, suitable for the planning needs of most (non-food) retailers, we’ve been able to cut down implementation times to four or five months, potentially saving a substantial amount in project fees.”

Research, in association with the National Retail Federation last year, has shown that retailers are often put-off upgrading and investing in new technology because of the time it can take and headaches and costs involved.

The concept of software vendors selling ‘out-of-box’ solutions for more mass market appeal isn’t a new one. However, Jolley said that TXT MAPLE LAKE has decided not to reduce functionality by cutting bits out or over simplifying, unlike many other solutions. This means retailers are getting exactly the same core software, which can later be adapted and upgraded to take advantage of TXT MAPLE LAKE’s continuous product development and to further protect the customer’s investment (much like, say, with Apple iTunes).

“It’s not a dumbed-down planning solution,” he added.

The software works by taking sales data from existing systems to automatically produce a ‘hierarchy of needs’ that identifies the most profitable lines: whether for individual stores, online or international sales channels. Users can see, at the touch of a button, a forecast of stock and sales and the impact of, say, ordering more A-line dresses, or changing a particular supplier. It shows the ideal product mix and volumes before actually buying or allocating to stores, he said. Alerts can flag up anything likely to be a concern, such as low profit margin items, or missed sales due to stock-outs.

The QuickAssortment ‘Out-of-the-box’ pre-configured software is available from April 2012, and is priced according to the size and scale of the retailer.

About TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd.
TXT MAPLE LAKE Ltd. is a software and services provider for specialty retailers worldwide. The company offers QuickAssortment, QuickAllocation and QuickAnalytics™, a set of applications that refines merchandise & assortment management, allocation planning all of the comprehensive planning requirements of a modern multi channel business. The company’s customers represent 10,000-plus retail locations, including adidas Group, Aeropostale, Arcadia Group, Barneys New York, Columbia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Steve Madden, to name but a few. TXT MAPLE LAKE, a privately-held company formed in July 2000, is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. TXT MAPLE LAKE is a certified Microsoft partner. More information is available at www.maplelake.com.

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