Tom Singh, founder of UK fashion brand New Look, has backed a London-based fashion technology company to help apparel retailers and manufacturers manage their supply chains.
Founded in 2015 by British entrepreneur Andrew Xeni and current CTO Ray Noppe, Fabacus is designed to help retailers save money by streamlining the way manufacturers manage complex supply chains by offering access to live data and system-to-system integration. Fabacus’s suite of business and data management software aims to improve efficiency, coordination, profitability and growth.
“There is a huge opportunity for retailers to drive significant cost savings to consumers through better understanding how their products are made,” Xeni said. “By using living data uploaded onto the cloud, manufacturers have the potential to grow and become far more efficient.”
According to Singh, inefficient procurement and a lack of retail information has compressed margins and held the high street back in the face of online competition.
“Online shopping has been a double-edged sword for the fashion industry. It’s put some traditional retailers under pressure but unlocked a massive wealth of opportunity for those able to modernize and benefit from digital technology,” he explains. “Lean production and big data are buzzwords for some, but with the right software, manufacturers can benefit immensely by creating more potential and by better understanding what’s happening in their business.
“Fabacus has been created from the ground up inside a clothing manufacturer and the point is to replace a culture of sticky notes and Excel sheets with digital processes that have the potential to really help companies grow and become more efficient.”
The company has already begun working with several of the UK’s largest fashion manufacturing companies and are in the advanced stages of securing contracts with both bricks-and-mortar and ecommerce retailers, but declined to give names.
Xeni is also a firm believer in technology’s ability to help companies overcome issues of transparency and reduce supply chain risk, something that constantly plagues the fashion industry, particularly where fast fashion is concerned. Fabucus, along with other tools like Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI) offer opportunities for brands to make improvements to both their procurement and production processes, as well as their reputations.
Editor's Note: Fabacus' Symphony software solution is not to be confused with LaborVoices' worker feedback solution, also called Symphony. The two companies are both working to improve fashion supply chains, but are focused on different issues within that space.
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Published Nov 22, 2016 3pm EST / 12pm PST / 8pm GMT / 9pm CET