26 January 2016

Coats Group plc, the world's leading industrial and consumer textile crafts business, is pleased to announce a global sales partnership between GSD and Mr Engineer. GSD (Corporate) Ltd, which is part of Coats Global Services, has signed an exclusive agreement with Mr Engineer to market its solutions to the international sewn products industry.

Mr Engineer is a real-time monitoring solution that combines engineering best practice with strategic tools to increase operator productivity and efficiency. By mapping operator practice and performance against an established cycle time, it captures and quantifies down-time, tracking every cycle to provide an accurate picture of operator pace and identify areas for improvement.

Mr Engineer's software and hardware work as one to increase operator productivity, manage costs and improve quality across a wide range of factory operations. The software has recently been upgraded with new technologies and enhanced features and is a natural fit with GSD.

Paul Timson, Managing Director, GSD said 'This is an important next step in the expansion of the range of business solutions that GSD provides the sewn products industry to increase productivity, develop technical skills and drive efficiency.'

Jerry Tew, President and CEO, Mr Engineer said: 'Our areas of expertise are highly complementary. Following Coats' acquisition of GSD, we are delighted to be associated with a company with such a strong and distinguished global presence. Our product has always championed the importance of the operator in manufacturing - something that fits well with the heritage and history of Coats - and we believe this agreement will enable us to reach a greater range of global manufacturers to help them maximise performance and output.'

While GSD (Corporate) Ltd will act as the primary sales conduit, Mr Engineer LLC will be responsible for ongoing product development and day-to-day global support.

The partnership with Mr Engineer follows the announcement in May 2015 that Coats acquired 100% of GSD (Corporate) Ltd after a one year successful strategic alliance.

ENDS

To download a high resolution image go to: www.coats.com/imagelibrary

For more information contact:
Kristina Blissett, Head of Communications kristina.blissett@coats.com
T +44 (0)208 210 5084, M +44 (0)7714 539887

Notes to Editors

About GSD (Corporate) Ltd

GSD is a UK company based in Preston, traditionally the heartland of the UK garment and textile industry. Since 1976 it has been, and continues to be, a global market leader, supplying methods analysis and productivity improvement solutions to the sewn products sector. As the globally accepted Predetermined Times System for the sewn products sector, GSD is referenced by the International Labour Organisation as an industry standard. It is active in more than 68 countries and has more than 5,000 customers worldwide. There are also more than 12,000 formally licensed 'GSD Practitioners' in the world today. Revenues in 2014 were approximately £1.5m.

www.gsdhq.com

About Mr Engineer

Mr Engineer is a US company based in Alabama, which for almost 30 years has been providing the international sewn products industries in 15 countries with its patented revolutionary productivity-boosting software. Mr Engineer can be used to increase operator productivity, manage costs and improve quality across a wide range of operations, such as sewing, quality, spreading or pressing where a rate or production quota is applied.

www.mrengineer.com

About Coats Global Services

Coats Global Services was launched in response to customer demands to help industry partners realise productivity and supply chain gains, develop technical skills, and enhance corporate responsibility across manufacturing and colour management. In May 2015, Coats acquired 100% of GSD Corporate Ltd, which became a Coats Group company.

www.coatsglobalservices.com

About Coats

With a rich heritage dating back to the 1750s, Coats is the world's leading industrial thread and consumer textile crafts business, at home in more than 70 countries, employing over 20,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2014 were US$1.7bn.
Our well-known brands and strong relationships with customers and consumers mean our products and services meet current and future needs. Our company-wide understanding of our business partners and consumers, coupled with the deep expertise of our people, builds trust and certainty.
Coats' pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company continues leading the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries; extending the crafts offer into new markets and online; and applying innovative techniques to develop products in new areas such as tracer threads, aramids and fibre optics.

  • One in five garments on the planet is held together using Coats' thread
  • More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats' thread every year
  • Coats produces enough yarn to knit 70 million scarves a year
  • Every three hours Coats makes enough thread to go to the moon and back
  • More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats' thread
  • In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats' thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
  • Every week over one billion teabags are brewed using Coats' thread
  • Coats produces enough thread to reach around the Equator every ten minutes
  • Thousands of surgical operations take place every day using Coats' thread
  • Coats is the second largest and fastest growing global zip manufacturer

Coats Group plc issued this content on 26 January 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 26 January 2016 11:19:12 UTC

Original Document: http://www.coats.com/index.asp?pageid=214&newsid=94