PVH

CUSTOMER OVERVIEW

PVH is a leader in the retail apparel space, responsible for iconic brands such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. With over 6,000 physical retail locations in more than 40 countries, PVH is committed to optimizing logistics, reducing costs, and ensuring seamless operations across its international markets. 

CHALLENGE

With the need for unbiased and extensive freight market visibility, PVH became a Xeneta customer during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rates were high, the market was unpredictable, budgets were quickly surpassed, and all spend needed to be justified. 

With pressure from senior management, PVH’s transportation team, led by Dennis O’Connor, VP of International Transport, recognised a big gap in internal alignment.

After the pandemic, in an effort to provide a more predictable in-store experience to its worldwide customer base, PVH began to unify their previously regional procurement teams into one global operation. This presented new challenges: 

• More knowledge gaps, less efficiency: PVH needed to quickly find price, service level, and general freight market information in new, unfamiliar regions. 

• Finding the right mode of transport and time to market: Understanding global shipping dynamics across ocean and air freight was key to maintaining high deliverability. 

Luckily, as a Xeneta customer, PVH could easily work with their dedicated Customer Success team to face these hurdles head-on and gain additional insight into global shipping. 

SOLUTION

PVH has access to Xeneta’s full suite of products and solutions across both ocean and air freight.  

Their subscription includes features and datasets such as rate and tender benchmarking, spend analytics, capacity, schedule reliability, and personalized reports that look at global performance, peer comparison, and future market forecasts. 

PVH uses this data to: 

• Gain Market Intel: Get a sense of trending demand in the market and its impact on rates 

• Manage Risk: Anticipate disruptions or price hikes and adjust their shipping strategies accordingly, assessing both time to market and choice of ocean or air freight 

• Maintain Alignment: Stay consistent across their global operations, ensuring that all regions benefit from centralized, data-driven decisions. 

• Justify Spend: Present unbiased market performance, competitive position, and budget estimates to senior stakeholders. 

• Benchmark Rates: Compare their existing freight contracts with market trends to identify areas to focus on for optimization or cost-saving opportunities. 

• Enhance Negotiations: Negotiate more transparent, favorable terms with suppliers, prioritizing high service levels and deliverability. 

In his own words, O’Connor is a big advocate for Xeneta’s vast use cases:  

“I can log into Xeneta every day and have immediate access to the entire global shipping market. Whether I want to do lane-specific napkin math with the person sitting next to me, or plan annual strategies with my colleague across the globe, I have everything I need to do it.” 

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Over their three years as a customer, PVH has successfully used Xeneta to maintain resilience through black swan events such as Covid-19 and the Red Sea crisis, a complete strategic shift from regional to global procurement, and high-stakes negotiations in both weak and strong market conditions.  

Today, the platform and its data are a critical component in PVH’s supply chain management, with O’Connor stating that the platform has become “an essential part of how we do business.”  

“Ocean and air freight changes fast, but so does the retail apparel industry,” he continues. “The ability to see how our rates compare to the market over time has been a game-changer for us. We can now negotiate from a position of strength and be much more proactive about how and when we go to market.”  

Successes from the continued Xeneta and PVH partnership include: 

• Cost Avoidance and Improved Contract Negotiations: 
  • Effective Cost Management: By leveraging Xeneta’s data, PVH identified areas where their rates were not in line with their market needs and successfully renegotiated contracts. This gave them a more agile way to manage costs, allowing them to allocate resources more efficiently across their global supply chain.  
  • Strengthened Negotiation Power: O'Connor stated, "Having access to transparent, real-time market data gave us the leverage we needed during contract negotiations. It’s not just about saving money — it’s about ensuring we get the best possible terms in a volatile market."  
• Operational Efficiency and Process Optimization:

• • Streamlined Logistics Processes: Xeneta’s data serves as a source of market truth for PVH and has allowed them to integrate market intelligence into their global logistics and procurement processes. This integration led to smoother operations and faster decision-making, reducing delays and inefficiencies. 

• Strengthened Partnership and Ongoing Alignment: 
  • From Skepticism to Advocacy: The relationship between PVH and Xeneta evolved from initial skepticism to a strong, ongoing partnership. O'Connor reflected on this transformation, saying, "We went from being uncertain about how often we would use the platform after Covid, to now fully embracing it as a key part of our logistics strategy. Xeneta has proven its value time and time again." 

• • Trusted Business Intelligence: “When presenting to senior management or the C-suite, Xeneta makes all the difference. It’s no longer a question of ‘why should we trust this data?’ — it’s become a baseline for our logistics decisions. The more we use Xeneta, the more the value grows."
    
    

CONTINUED SUCCESS

Looking forward, PVH intends to deepen its use of Xeneta’s platform. The company sees potential in further leveraging Xeneta’s advanced analytics and reporting features to drive even greater efficiencies. Working with their Customer Success team will be integral to this, with both sides dedicated to maintaining their close working relationship. 

Showing interest in Xeneta’s upcoming releases. PVH is exploring how Xeneta’s data can be integrated with other technologies within their operations to enhance visibility and control. As O’Connor shares, “75% of my job is moving data around”, so he highlights Xeneta’s Datalink solution (API and Bulk Download) as a huge potential time saver.  

Alongside this, PVH plans to use Xeneta’s Carbon Emissions Index to support its sustainability initiatives by identifying opportunities to reduce emissions through optimized shipping routes and modes of transport. 

As PVH prepares for future challenges in the global supply chain, Xeneta will continue to play a vital role in how the company navigates complexities and remains agile, innovative, and successful in a constantly changing market.