Coats Digital, the software division of Coats Group, has won two major honours at the 2025 Just Style Excellence Awards for its innovative time-cost benchmarking solution, GSDCost. The company was recognised with the Innovation - Data Solutions Award and the Environmental - Compliance & Sustainability Award for the second year in a row, underscoring its continued impact on transforming fashion industry operations through technology and sustainability.
GSDCost was praised for revolutionising the costing process across the sewn products industry by replacing outdated analogue methods with a standardised, digital, and scientific solution. It empowers brands and manufacturers to make more accurate and consistent costing decisions, supports ethical compliance, and improves operational efficiency through its fact-based insights.
The Just Style Excellence Awards, powered by GlobalData, recognise outstanding achievements across various business domains, with winners selected through analysis of over 1 billion datasets. The programme honours excellence in areas such as innovation, sustainability, social impact, and business expansion.
The GSDCost solution earned the Innovation - Data Solutions Award for several industry-first functionalities. These include enabling brands to efficiently compare Cost-to-Make submissions from multiple vendors, creating a standardised analytics language for improved communication across supply chains, and offering comprehensive data insights on vendor productivity, machine capabilities, and ethical compliance. The solution also enables credible Bill of Labour estimates using scientifically validated international standard time benchmarks, ensuring improved accuracy in costing.
GSDCost’s role in sustainability was equally lauded. It secured the Environmental – Compliance & Sustainability Award for helping brands meet emerging regulatory requirements around fair wages and environmental impact. The platform promotes sustainable manufacturing by optimising planning and line balancing, reducing waste, and improving resource efficiency. It also integrates a global Fair Wage Tool, benchmarking wages against international standards to uphold fair labour practices.
Kunal Kapur, Managing Director at Coats Digital, expressed pride in the recognition, saying, “These awards reflect our ongoing commitment to enabling smarter, more sustainable business decisions in fashion. GSDCost has consistently delivered the tools our customers need to meet today’s complex supply chain challenges with confidence.”
Adrian Elliott, Divisional CEO, Apparel, Coats Group, added, “Winning for the second year in a row reinforces GSDCost’s value in creating a digital, transparent, and responsible global fashion supply chain. Our mission is to continue driving meaningful change through technology that enhances productivity, ensures compliance, and supports long-term sustainability goals.”
Widely acknowledged as the de-facto international standard for method-time-cost analysis in the sewn products industry, GSDCost supports a more collaborative and transparent ecosystem. By enabling the adoption of International Standard Time Benchmarks and standard motion codes, it fosters accurate cost forecasting, ethical negotiation, and environmentally responsible manufacturing across the value chain.
