Hartmarx Corp, a Chicago-based clothing manufacturer, has abandoned a project to implement a company-wide ERP system and is suing the vendors, Birmingham, UK-based JBA Holdings Plc, for $18.7m.
JBA claims to be surprised by the action and said over the past few months it had made considerable progress addressing issues arising from the project. JBA said it would vigorously and strenuously defend the legal claims.
After implementing JBA’s software in one plant, Hartmarx said it had decided company-wide implementation would not be appropriate. It is taking a $6.9m charge for scrapping the project.
JBA specializes in the clothing and footwear industry and says its Style product is used by over 300 businesses worldwide. But legal action comes at a bad time for JBA, which recorded losses of 7.6m pounds ($11.9m) in its last fiscal year on revenue that rose 31.4% to 291.5m pounds ($459.2).
