MAS ACME, a specialised division of MAS Holding, is unlocking 80 per cent of hidden value in apparel supply chains through a diagnostic-first approach
PARTNER CONTENT – In the 2002 film Moneyball, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane rewrote the rules of baseball by focusing not on what looked good on paper, but on what actually won games. By digging into overlooked statistics, like on-base percentage, he challenged an entire industry to rethink its assumptions.
Today, MAS ACME, a specialised division of MAS Holdings, is doing something similar in the apparel world. In an industry that still prizes factory performance and cost-per-unit, ACME is proving that the real levers of profitability, and agility, lie elsewhere. Through a diagnostic-first methodology, the company is helping brands uncover hidden value, chase upside demand, and rethink what supply chains can do.
From Manufacturing to Intelligence Hub
MAS ACME was born in 2017, following MAS Holdings’ acquisition of Acme McCrary, a century-old North Carolina manufacturer. It marked the first time a Sri Lankan apparel group had established manufacturing operations in the United States. But that was only the beginning.
Over the last seven years, ACME has transformed from a traditional production site into MAS’s U.S.-based orchestration hub, a supply chain intelligence engine that supports some of the world’s most iconic apparel brands.
By functioning more like a physician than a supplier, diagnosing before prescribing, ACME is helping companies find and fix the systemic issues that conventional dashboards often miss.
Chasing Margin Is Good. Chasing Upside Is Better.
According to MAS ACME CEO Brad Ballentine, brands typically focus on minimising losses: avoiding stockouts, late deliveries, or margin erosion. “That’s important,” he says, “but our model also quantifies where the upside lives, where fast response to demand signals can drive double the return.”
Ballentine points out that most brands don’t fail because they’re too slow to avoid risk; they fail because they’re too slow to capture opportunity. ACME’s diagnostics expose both, margin killers and unplanned demand spikes that can be systematically chased, not chaotically reacted to.
“In many cases,” Ballentine adds, “the ROI from chasing upside is 2X that of just avoiding loss. That’s the hidden multiplier.”
The US$1.7 Trillion Blind Spot
“Most teams operate in silos, which blocks a full view of the value chain,” explains Oscar Chavarría, chief operating officer at MAS ACME. “Traditional ERP systems report factory performance, but rarely expose the cross-functional, upstream-downstream issues that quietly drain profitability.”
Chavarría estimates that poor coordination across planning, warehousing, shipping, and sell-through contributes to US$1.7 trillion in global lost revenue through overproduction, stockouts, and mismatched decision-making. The biggest cost drivers: excess inventory, air freight, returns, markdowns, live far outside the factory, yet few brands manage them with surgical precision.
The Diagnostic-First Model: “Do No Harm” to the Supply Chain
ACME’s approach mirrors the medical field: diagnose deeply before you treat. It starts with a full-spectrum health assessment: from yarn to customer sentiment. That assessment powers a tailored roadmap rooted in what’s actually happening across the value chain.
Data inputs include raw material complexity, MOQ constraints, lead time variability, shipment modes, store-level sell-through, markdown trends, and customer reviews. These are synthesised into business rules that drive AI-powered decision support.
“Brands come to us thinking the problem is in production,” says Ballentine. “But most often, the real leverage lies in what products to bet on, how much to produce, and when. That’s where profit lives.”
Precision Tools for Chasing Demand, Not Just Managing Risk
ACME’s diagnostic-first model doesn’t stop at insights, it converts them into execution through a tightly integrated ecosystem of partners, each addressing a specific breakdown in the traditional supply-demand chain.
This includes Syrup, a demand-intelligence engine that brings granular forecasting to both core and newness. Merchants often rely on historical data and gut feel; Syrup uses machine learning to surface where demand is emerging, not just where it’s been. This enables smarter buys, tighter PO staging, and real-time chase strategies that move with the customer.
Kornit Digital, meanwhile, powers localised, high-quality print-on-demand execution. But it’s not just about printing, it’s about agility. By staging blank hoodies and tees through MAS’s Foreign Trade Zone in North Carolina, the trio creates a living inventory model. This system can respond to unexpected upside: limited drops, regional exclusives, or trend surges. All without waiting months for new stock.
The irony in fashion is that we often waste both inventory and opportunity. The real loss isn’t just margin, it’s the upside we didn’t chase.
As MAS ACME CEO Brad Ballentine explains: “The traditional model rewards overbuying and punishes risk-taking. But when we align demand sensing with modular supply, you can chase upside intelligently, without chaos, and that’s where real growth lives.”
This approach is especially effective in dynamic categories like graphic tees, hoodies, or event-driven capsules. Areas where newness moves fast, but legacy supply chains move slow. By starting with a focused use case, the partnership gives brands a low-risk way to experiment, learn, and unlock capital efficiency.
The result: higher full-price sell-through, faster turn, and the ability to say “yes” to what’s working, in real time.
Rethinking Optimisation: Beyond the Factory Floor
MAS ACME has helped brands realsze that the majority of profit erosion, and untapped value, resides outside of the factory. While manufacturers have made gains in unit cost efficiency, ACME’s work shows the next frontier lies in how brands plan, stage, and respond.
That might mean investing more in certain areas: staging raw materials, holding flexible inventory, or delaying final decisions until demand becomes clear. What sounds counterintuitive often unlocks higher full-price realisation, fewer markdowns, and reduced waste.
“True optimisation isn’t about lowest cost per unit,” says Ballentine. “It’s about net margin and resilience. We help our partners build intelligence that improves with every cycle.”
The Bigger Play: Profit, Agility, and Sustainability – Simultaneously
The apparel industry is entering a new era. Traditional enterprise systems are maxed out. Climate impact is under scrutiny. And market volatility is now the norm. ACME believes that the future belongs to those who simplify decision-making through diagnostics, enable modular execution, and systematically chase demand.
With its diagnostic-first methodology, MAS ACME is already delivering net margin lifts of 20–30 per cent – not through guesswork, but by unlocking value that’s been hiding in plain sight.
As Ballentine puts it: “The capital we need to transform this industry is already here. It’s just trapped in the wrong places.”
