Coats launches Coats Digital
- 16 Sep 2019
17 September 2019: Coats, the world's leading industrial thread company, is launching Coats Digital. The integrated technology business brings together all its software solutions under a new single brand which describes and aligns with the offering to its customers across the apparel and footwear industries.
Coats Digital provides in-depth industry expertise combined with the practical application of the latest technology, including Big Data and AI, delivering market leading software solutions. It will build on the advantages associated with the Coats brand of trust, expertise, credibility and its global footprint. A key aspect of Coats' growth strategy is to build an innovative software solutions business for its customers.
The benefit for Coats' customers will be a one stop shop approach and an unrivalled suite of best in class, and progressively integrated solutions, which will also adopt the new Coats Digital branding. The series of acquisitions it has made in this space of GSD, FastReact and ThreadSol have been highly successful. Now is the time to simplify the house of multiple software brands through a coordinated market expansion of a portfolio of products to support customers in the face of unprecedented industry pressures.
The business will be led by Keith Fenner who has been appointed as Managing Director, Coats Digital. Keith joins Coats from Microsoft where he was Group Director for Business Applications, Middle East and Africa. He was responsible for revenue and performance linked to new customer acquisition and new product penetration for this leading global software company. Keith has over 20 years' experience across the global technology sector including working at listed tech companies like Sage and Computer Associates (now CA Technologies). He also has a strong track record of driving rapid commercial growth and integrating multiple businesses.
Keith Fenner, Managing Director, Coats Digital, said: 'This is the beginning of an exciting new age for our software solutions offering. Coats Digital provides a clear and distinct focus and establishes that while Coats continues to be an industrial manufacturing company we are also innovating technologies of tomorrow to improve how the fashion industry develops, costs, sources and manufactures products sustainably into the future.'
The launch of Coats Digital includes a creative new logo with two units: graphic and text. The graphic is inspired by a detail of the Coats chain which is given a digitised feel and can also be interpreted as the initials CD. The strapline is 'transform with intelligence'. The logo is blue to retain the connection with the Coats logo.
The geographic footprint of Coats Digital covers more than 65 countries. It has global customer relationships with over 5,000 retailers, bands, sourcing business and manufacturers.
Coats Digital will be showcasing its new brand at two forthcoming trade events to support its roll out to customers: PI Apparel in New York (Tuesday 17 – Wednesday 18 September) and CISMA in Shanghai (Wednesday 25 – Saturday 28 September).
For further information go to www.coatsdigital.com
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For more information contact:
Kristina Blissett, Head of Group Communications
kristina.blissett@coats.com
T +44 (0)208 210 5084, M +44 (0)7714 539887
Notes to Editors
About Coats
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread company. At home in some 50 countries, Coats has a workforce of 18,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2018 were US$1.4bn.
Coats’ pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world. It provides complementary and value added products, services and software solutions to the apparel and footwear industries. It applies innovative techniques to develop high technology Performance Materials threads, yarns and fabrics in areas such as automotive, composites, fibre optics and oil and gas.
Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE 250 company and a constituent of the FTSE4Good UK Index. It is also the Official Thread Supplier to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- Each year we make enough thread to go into 8 billion pairs of jeans – that is one for every person on the planet
- Every month Coats produces enough thread to stretch all the way to the sun
- More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats’ thread
- More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats’ Performance Materials thread every year
- In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats’ thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
- Our flame retardant Performance Materials threads can withstand temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius
To find out more about Coats visit www.coats.com
To subscribe to news releases as they are added to the website go to www.coats.com/email-signup
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