“Starting with the END” - Bergans of Norway takes a different approach to Digital Product Passport

Bergans of Norway has called on Trimco Group’s services to help support their digital product passport (DPP) journey. The Norwegian outdoor brand has tapped into Trimco Group’s experience in compliance consulting, data collection, and label supply.

Making use of Trimco Group’s comprehensive expertise in the management of unique QR codes and labelling, the DPP project focuses on the tagging of unique labels across Bergans’ SS25 product range. Unique QR codes will be used to prepare Bergans for the next step of their DPP (Digital Product Passport) expansion. The collaboration employs Trimco Group’s ProductDNA® digital manager module that creates GS1 digital link serialized codes.

Why is it important to start focusing on DPP now?

“The implementation of the DPP requirements for textile and apparel businesses is not far off. Companies should adopt a readiness mindset and if they have not already done so, begin their product and location identification processes now.

That said, there are so many aspects to the DPP, and brands will quickly find that they need to involve all departments and get “buy-in” from their entire supplier network. This can be particularly challenging,” states Camilla Mjelde, Sustainability and Compliance Director at Trimco Group. Thanks to its comprehensive knowledge of Bergans’ supplier network as their incumbent label supplier, their ESG advisory service, the upstream traceability platform ProductDNA®, and, finally, the expertise in unique QR code labelling supply, Trimco Group covers many aspects of the DPP puzzle, making the partnership the best way to start tackling the DPP journey.

In recent years, Trimco Group has proactively engaged with partners like Bergans’ PLM vendor - Centric Software, as well as Trimco Group’s downstream solution provider and partner - Kezzler - to truly encompass every aspect of a brand’s DPP challenges.

Starting with the end

“Building on learnings from a pilot project that offered a subscription model for kids' coveralls and the service deal that includes repairs and services on their Rabot collection products, we are delighted that Bergans has chosen Trimco Group once again to underpin this exciting DPP journey. And the beauty of this project is in the way Bergans truly takes a different approach to their DPP strategy, showing that there is no perfect recipe out there, and brands have the chance NOW to do something about it. No one can stop it from coming, but brands such as Bergans, understood that they can shape the HOW to do it”, mentions Camilla Mjelde.

Rather than delaying for a complete dataset amidst evolving DPP compliance requirements, Bergans’ strategy to first solve the challenges of applying unique QR code labels to their manufacturing base makes them start with “the end” in many ways.

The challenge of feeding global manufacturing with unique labelling is tackled first, followed up by the brand gradually feeding traceability data to their own Bergans.ID platform, as DPP compliance requirements become more definite.

“Waiting for all data to be gathered and perfect, when not knowing exactly what data will also be required by the DPP compliance would only delay the process. I admire the team at Bergans for their proactive approach. They did not rush into their DPP journey, but they did not want to wait too long either, and I think that’s a valuable lesson for the industry”, concluded Camilla Mjelde.

“We have been working with Trimco Group as part of the joint NF&TA (national cluster for the fashion and textile industry) DPP working group for some time now, sharing know-how and experience. We feel that our brands share a similar ethos and drive to move our industry towards a more sustainable, circular future for the benefit of all. This is why we chose to work with Trimco Group, originally to support our subscription and repair service, but now also to help us proactively prepare for, implement, and maintain our DPP compliance,” states Yngvill Ofstad, Sustainability Manager at Bergans of Norway.