Oxylane Group Selects PTC(R) Retail, Footwear, and Apparel Solution to Accelerate Development of Its Private-Label Products

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company®, today announced that Oxylane Group - the new corporate identity of the Décathlon Group- the sports equipment manufacturer and retailer, has chosen PTC FlexPLM™ to accelerate development of its private-label products. FlexPLM is PTC’s Product Lifecycle Management solution dedicated to the retail, footwear and apparel industry and will be used for the design and development of clothing items retailed under the sports retailer’s "Passion Brands.” Oxylane Group selected FlexPLM in order to optimize its entire development process, from product design through to supply. Consequently, Décathlon has decided to deploy this solution simultaneously in France and in the countries where its main suppliers are located. This means that the head office at Villeneuve d’Ascq (north of France) will be linked up with the following sites: Quechua (mountain sports) in the Alps region, Tribord (water sports) at Hendaye and Geologic (hunting and fishing) at Cestas (near Bordeaux). At the same time, the tool will be accessible to all production subsidiaries of Oxylane Group and their subcontractors in Europe, North Africa, Asia and South America. For Oxylane, interoperability and communication between the disparate groups were essential factors in their selection. Previously, some data was entered seven or eight times and translated three times. Now, it is planned for FlexPLM to reduce the process to a single operation. "FlexPLM is a tool that has already proved its worth for a number of companies on the textiles market, such as Liz Claiborne and JCPenney in the USA,” said Hervé Lautier, project manager, Oxylane Group. "Additionally, the commitment of the PTC team to the success of the Décathlon project played a decisive role in the choice of the solution.” FlexPLM will allow Oxylane Group to achieve the following objectives: Improve collaboration between the design and development teams and the supply chain partners around the world Reduce the design costs and lead times, allowing, for example, the number of prototypes to be reduced by half Improve product quality In addition, FlexPLM will ultimately be used for designing sports shoes and bags bearing the Passion brand names. Lastly, Oxylane Group chose FlexPLM since the solution stands out from the competition on account of a Product Road Map that leverages the PTC team's understanding of the key developments affecting retail, footwear and apparel industries worldwide. PTC's customers also benefit from PTC's dynamic Customer Council which meets regularly to review industry trends and allow customers to provide input into defining future functionalities of the FlexPLM solution "PTC is excited by the momentum we are experiencing in the retail, footwear and apparel industry and delighted to be working with Oxylane Group,” said Kathleen Mitford, vice president vertical market strategy, PTC. "Oxylane Group is currently implementing FlexPLM in a project designed to develop the Passion Brands more efficiently, so that the organization is able to offer to its ever more discerning clientele products that ally innovation, quality and value.” About OXYLANE GROUP OXYLANE GROUP: the new corporate identity of the Décathlon Group Oxylane Group, run by Yves Claude, has been the new corporate name for the Décathlon Group for some weeks now. The name derives from "Oxy” for "oxygen”, "lane” to indicate a path and "X” and "Y” to evoke the chromosomes of man and woman, giving rise to a name that is synonymous with friendliness, communication and having fun together. More than just a new name, it also reflects a new organization. Oxylane Group comprises two business lines: the creation of global branded sports products and local and online retail. These two business lines and the various structures making up the Oxylane Group all serve a common goal: to create a desire for sport and make it accessible to the masses. Décathlon, the store chain created in 1976 near Lille (north of France), and the other local or online sales outlets distribute the 13 Passion Brand products in over 400 stores, using the best Technical Brand materials. This gives the Oxylane Group total control over the product development chain, from R&D to local and online sales, through design, engineering, production and logistics. With its 40 000-strong headcount, the Oxylane Group is an international, multi-skilled, multi-channel corporation, but remains united by the passions shared daily with its customers and users. About PTC Solutions for Retail, Footwear and Apparel PTC solutions for retail, footwear and apparel are designed to meet the product lifecycle management requirements of retailers, branded manufacturers and their suppliers. These web-based solutions are comprised of FlexPLM and provide configurable functionality and information visibility across the enterprise and its supply chain. PTC is a leading provider to top retail, footwear and apparel brands worldwide. About PTC PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) provides leading product lifecycle management (PLM), content management and dynamic publishing solutions to more than 50,000 organizations worldwide. PTC customers include the world's most innovative companies in manufacturing, publishing, services, government and life sciences industries. PTC is included in the S&P Midcap 400 and Russell 2000 indices. For more information on PTC, please visit http://www.ptc.com. Except for the historical information contained herein, matters discussed in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These include: the success of our initiatives to facilitate our customer's understanding of the benefits of our PLM solutions for the Retail, Footwear and Apparel industry, including interoperability, quality, return on investment and value creation; our ability to continue to successfully develop and integrate the technology necessary to offer an integrated product development system for the Retail, Footwear and Apparel industry that adequately responds to evolving customer requirements including the system’s ability to facilitate global product development and control all aspects of the development cycle so that products are delivered to the marketplace quickly and at reduced cost; our ability to achieve our growth objectives by extending our solutions to vertical industries, beyond the discreet manufacturing verticals traditionally served by PTC; and the success of our integrated solutions strategy initiatives; as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by PTC with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. The announcement of any particular selection of PTC products is not necessarily indicative of the timing of recognition of revenue from such order or the level of revenue for any particular period. PTC and its logo, The Product Development Company, FlexPLMWindchill and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.