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LECTRA : Lectra Launches the New Version of Kaledo(R), its Unique Fashion-Specific Design Solution

Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using soft materials -- textiles, leather, industrial fabrics and composite materials, is pleased to announce the availability of the new version of Kaledo® V2R1.

Kaledo enables creative teams to benefit from the latest advances in design technology, both for textile and fashion. Kaledo brings design, product development, marketing and management teams together--helping them to collaborate harmoniously when developing trends and collections. Kaledo includes modules to create highly realistic simulations of prints, weaves and knits, and to develop variations in just a few mouse clicks.

Kaledo functions on a platform specially devised to meet the specific needs of fashion companies. Its range of tools enables designers to increase productivity while facilitating the exchange of ideas, visuals and data between teams.

Fashion: a rapidly-changing market facing a number of challenges

"Fashion companies today really have to evolve, as the market has changed. They are under enormous pressure to produce attractive, original styles at reasonable prices, and to do so faster and more frequently than before," explained Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. "The result of more than 30 years in technological design solutions and our collaboration with some of the biggest names in fashion, Kaledo is an unprecedented step forward which will allow our customers to reach previously unequalled levels of productivity. Our objective is not only to support them as they face their current challenges, but also to help them prepare for the end of the economic crisis so that they emerge with an edge over their competitors."

Designers are now expected to produce profitable and technically feasible collections more frequently, while at the same time displaying more creativity. To meet this challenge, they must not only be able to count on powerful tools but also on the know-how of other professionals within the company. Close collaboration involves more specialists early on in the process and enables designers to create collections that are more coherent and better adapted to the demands of the market--an absolute must in the current economic climate.

"Even those involved in creative activities are now being put under pressure to show more productivity. With Kaledo, fashion companies can develop new models and collections using existing elements, capitalizing, season after season, on their creative assets while taking new trends into account. They can thus respond to a request for designs or modifications in just a few hours, all the while ensuring the quality of their styles and limiting their costs," added Anastasia Charbin, Head of Lectra's design solutions.

Kaledo V2R1, a real leap forward for the fashion industry

New-version Kaledo is quickly becoming the industry standard.

"After a careful and detailed validation process, Sonae Distribuição chose Lectra's design solutions at the end of June 2009. Using Kaledo, we expect to observe significant improvements in all our processes that center on design. Kaledo will centralize all product data in a single, organized location, boost the creative process by automating repetitive manual tasks, improve the quality of product specification data, and improve and facilitate communication and data exchange between the different agents of the process, both internal and external. We rely on Lectra's experience and know-how in the fashion business to ensure that we accomplish all these goals," said Dr. Miguel Costa Seixas, General Manager for Textile Business for Sonae--the largest distributor in Portugal (supermarkets), also operating in the textile sector.

"Kaledo is an excellent fashion design solution, perfectly suited to the needs of our business. The new V2R1 version has simplified and accelerated the entire design process from initial sketches to technical specifications, making our day-to-day activities much easier and faster," said Giulio Tonin, Information Systems Director at Diesel.

Kaledo sits on a platform that unites all of the company's teams and design-related activities, which improves the design process -- as experts from both Sonae and Diesel point out. These major players have also been able to benefit from considerable improvements in the textile development process.

Comparative tests have proved that the new version of Kaledo enables designers to halve the time they spend on repetitive tasks and allows them to handle the large files commonly used in the fashion business in record time. Kaledo also lets them save considerable amounts of time compared to U4ia, the previous industry standard.

"I'm really impressed with the improvements I've seen in Kaledo V2R1. I started off using U4ia, moved on to Kaledo V1, and have now migrated to V2 and have really seen a marked progression in the solution," said London-based luxury women's wear designer, Maria Grachvogel. "Kaledo opens up so many new possibilities. The time saved is extraordinary -- Kaledo has truly enhanced my creativity and enabled me to create textile designs that would otherwise have been practically impossible."

Another new feature of the solution allows users to save and organize Adobe Illustrator files straight into the Kaledo database.

Kaledo and Lectra's range of professional services

As part of Lectra's commitment to supporting its customers, Kaledo is accompanied by a range of high value-added services--consulting, implementation, training and support--provided by Lectra's design experts. Through this personalized support, Lectra enables its customers to optimize their creative processes, benefit from the best practices of the profession, and thus reap the full benefits of their technology.

About Lectra

Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions that automate, streamline, and accelerate product design, development, and manufacturing processes for industries using soft materials. Lectra develops the most advanced specialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets including fashion (apparel, accessories, footwear), automotive (car seats and interiors, airbags), and furniture, as well as a wide variety of other market sectors, such as the aeronautical and marine industries, wind power, and personal protective equipment. Lectra serves 23,000 customers in more than 100 countries with 1,500 employees and $292 million in 2008 revenues. The company is listed on Euronext Paris.

For more information, please visit www.lectra.com

® Kaledo is a registered trademark of Lectra.

This information is provided by HUGIN