Case study
Lower TCO, higher impact: How Active Brands scaled 4 brands on one platform with Centra
How Active Brands unlocked scale and speed across four brands, with less effort and spend.
Active Brands is a global accelerator of premium sports apparel and equipment brands, built on strong Nordic roots and international ambition. Since 2009, it has grown a diverse portfolio of eight brands—each with its own distinct identity and loyal following. Headquartered in Oslo, with offices across Europe, Asia, and North America, Active Brands continues to push boundaries and create products for professional and everyday athletes.
Too complex to scale
Four of the group’s brands (Kari Traa, Dæhlie, Sweet Protection, and Johaug) operate online, all of which were previously hosted on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. But as Head of Ecommerce Marianne Børsheim Dahl recalls, Salesforce’s complexity had become a barrier not only to growth but also to everyday tasks.
Salesforce was far too complex for us at Active Brands. We weren’t big enough, and we didn’t have the internal resources—no developers, no front-end team to build or maintain each site. It was easy to make mistakes, and we simply didn’t have the budget or technical capacity to make it work the way we needed for our brands.
Head of Ecommerce at Active Brands
Without dedicated internal developers, the business couldn't scale digital growth efficiently. Maintaining the four separate storefronts was a huge time drain for the lean team of six. Routine tasks like uploading products and updating stocks required coding skills, which slowed down campaign launches and created internal bottlenecks.
The slow, complex processes and high total cost of ownership ultimately led to the decision to replatform.
Real connection, right fit
After selecting Grebban as their front-end agency partner, the team explored several ecommerce platforms before determining that a unified solution was going to be essential. Managing multiple brands required a platform with consistent architecture across storefronts, allowing for shared systems and minimal duplication. Just as important was finding a platform purpose-built for fashion—offering scalability without relying on heavy customizations.
Key capabilities they prioritized:
Shared backend with individual frontends to manage multiple brand experiences from one system without sacrificing uniqueness
Reduced reliance on developers to handle routine tasks, removing bottlenecks and eliminating complexity for internal teams
Centralized integrations to reduce integration costs and streamline connections with ERP, payments, shipping, and more across all brands
Global inventory visibility to enable smarter fulfillment and preventing stockouts or stock silos
Centra ticked all the boxes.
We chose Centra for the flexibility and stability we needed to manage four brands that all have different stores, but at the same time use the same setup. Beyond that, the synergy between Centra and Grebban was important for us, and seeing the good vibes between them felt like the right fit for Active Brands.
Head of Ecommerce at Active Brands
A strategic platform overhaul
Having navigated a major platform switch from Magento to Salesforce in 2018, Active Brands entered the replatforming project with experience and clear focus. This time, the transition involved not only migrating from Salesforce to Centra but also replacing multiple integrations and relocating all stock to a new warehouse location. In just seven months, the team redesigned and launched a new digital flagship store for all four brands, rolling them out one by one to ensure a smooth and controlled migration.
Flexible technology for sustained growth
Kari Traa, Dæhlie, Sweet Protection, and Johaug are four unique brands, each serving different customer segments and markets but united by a shared goal: growth. They needed a flexible platform that would support each brand’s expansion at its own pace—not one they would outgrow, but one that could grow alongside them.
With Centra, each brand retains its own identity without demanding excessive development time, resources, or budget. Running all brands on a single backend has streamlined operations without adding headcount or duplicating systems.
We need the same programs and systems for each brand. As a small organization, supporting four different platforms and integrations would be impossible to manage. With Centra, we handle everything across all brands within one platform.
IT Systems Manager at Active Brands
Centra’s headless architecture also empowers teams to launch campaigns and update product details without relying on developers—freeing up resources, and reducing costs. Rather than spending heavily on a single system, as they were previously, they now maintain lower overall costs for their ecommerce tech stack.
We pay less now with all systems than we did for just that one system.
Head of Ecommerce at Active Brands
Scaling with confidence
Looking ahead, Active Brands is focusing on optimizing CRM data to gain deeper customer insights and boost loyalty, while improving payment, shipping, returns, and leveraging user-generated content. With Centra at the core of their DTC operations, the team is safe in the knowledge that their platform will evolve alongside all four brands—never something they outgrow or have to grow into.
Active Brands' tech-stack:
| Ecommerce platform | Centra |
|---|---|
| Accelerator | GrebCommerce by Grebban |
| Front-end design | Grebban |
| CMS | Storyblok |
| CRM | Dynamics 365 |
| Delivery experience | Ingrid |
| Payments | Adyen |
| ERP | Business Central |
