BARE AND BOLD
After conquering other global markets the nakd luxury artesian water brand has finally come home.
As a rule, New Zealand food and beverage brands are trialled in the domestic market before being launched offshore. With nakd, however, the reverse applied. The business was set up in July 2013 with a view to supplying a high end ultra-pure New Zealand bottled water offering in Singapore, explains the founder and CEO of nakd, Jamie Gripton. “The company founders happened to all be based in Singapore where we saw a gap in the market. However, we had such a huge response from [other] overseas markets that we decided to explore those opportunities [before launching in New Zealand].
“Our business has grown pretty organically and it wasn’t an intentional move to not be in New Zealand until now, says Jamie. “It was more about making sure we had the right partner to manage the brand.
“When Lion said they wanted to distribute nakd in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands it was a pretty easy decision to bring nakd home,” he says.
A great deal of thought went into the creation of the nakd brand.
“Our mission was to create a lifestyle brand of water that was not only incredible tasting, superior in purity and mineral DNA, but also had personality and didn’t take itself so seriously,” explains Jamie. “The brand is inclusive not exclusive, and we wanted it to be accessible to everyone, not just the elitist few.
“I think this has been our key to success; not trying to be anything more than we are, which is a beautiful and pure New Zealand artesian water.
“We wanted people to engage with the brand and for people to be able to see it as an extension