Lectra hires Charlie Xu as VP – Fashion Sales for China

Based in Shanghai, he reports to Andreas A. Kim, managing director, Lectra Greater China. Charlie Xu is responsible for helping Lectra’s fashion customers in China improve their design and development capabilities and make their business processes more efficient.

“Lectra’s position as a technology leader in fashion can bring considerable benefits to its customers in China. Our understanding of the fashion industry strengthens our complete range of innovative technologies and value-adding services to ease collaboration and create synergies internally, between teams, as well as with suppliers, making Lectra an indispensible partner,” commented Andreas A. Kim.

He adds, “Charlie’s inside-out knowledge of China’s top fashion brands means he can support them effectively so they derive the maximum value from Lectra’s solutions.”

The Chinese fashion market is undergoing a transition period. A large number of apparel manufacturers have started to develop their own designs and brands. This has made the environment more competitive than ever before.

“There are currently more than 11,000 fashion companies in China with combined revenues of RMB 1.25 trillion ($200 billion). The top 100 brands contribute over 30% of total business, and we see this consolidation continuing in the future. The brands that succeed in this concentrated market will be those that are able to build a competitive advantage through collaboration and by leveraging technologies such as 3D virtual prototyping and integrated design and development platform solutions,” said Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO.

“Lectra’s solutions allow fashion companies to work smarter and more efficiently and to produce higher quality products faster than before. This is crucial in China, where domestic fashion companies have expanded aggressively during the past few years, resulting in record-high inventory levels. Furthermore, owing to the compound effect of increased raw material costs and higher wages, Chinese fashion brands need to become more innovative and agile in order to stand out from the competition,” added Charlie Xu.

Charlie Xu has more than 15 years’ experience in fashion and marketing management roles. Before joining Lectra, he was regional vice president, fashion at Infor (formerly Lawson) where he was responsible for developing recurring revenues and service sales in the fashion sector in Greater China. He has a master’s degree in Industrial Management and Technology from the Technical Institute of Linköping University in Sweden.

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