Naked Innovations Success Stories

Opening new market opportunities for Tetra Pak: A Pioneering Scale-Up Ecosystem | 2023 -2024

Tetra Pak, in partnership with Naked Innovations, launched a Europe-wide scale- up accelerator to foster an ecosystem including startups, retailers, co-packers, and investors. This initiative aimed to enhance access to growth markets and drive innovation across industries.

Outcomes

• Scale-Up Club Launch: Successfully launched an industry-first club, originally exceeding targets by selecting six instead of two scale-ups for pilot projects, demonstrating ambition and reinforcing Tetra Pak's innovation leadership.
• ‍Cultural Impact: Significantly enhanced entrepreneurial culture within Tetra Pak, better positioning the company and its partners to meet future industry challenges and trends.

“Naked Innovations led the design and management of our new scaleup accelerator for Europe. Their ecosystem approach has opened new market opportunities and built an entrepreneurial mindset in the local commercial teams. Their vision took us beyond our original expectations to be much more ambitious and we feel totally supported.” - Maty Alarcon Global Incubator Center Manager at Tetra Pak

‍

Tetra Pak: Deepening Retailer Relationships in Mid-Europe through Strategic ESG Engagement | 2023 -2024

Following the success of Tetra Pak's scale-up ecosystem initiative, the company turned its attention toward improving collaboration with key commercial partners. In working closely with the commercial team, it became evident that existing relationships with retailers—particularly in the Mid-European and DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) regions—were largely transactional, lacking depth and strategic alignment.

Outcomes

• New Go-to-Market Strategy: Developed a regional approach tailored to ESG maturity and retailer needs.
• Deeper Relationships: Assigned stakeholder leads to build strategic, long-term retailer partnerships.
• Enhanced Positioning: Shifted Tetra Pak’s role from supplier to sustainability partner.‍
• Scalable Model: Created a replicable framework for other regions.

‍

Enabling 300% Growth for Bimbo UK | 2024

Over ~22 weeks, Bimbo UK (BUK) partnered with Naked Innovations to fast-track external partnerships, enabling growth while managing risk and ensuring quality delivery.

Outcomes

• Market Coverage: Entire UK bakery market scouted; 150+ profiles analysed, 3,000 data points collected (double the initial target).
  
• Validated Partners: 7 suitable partners identified, meeting or exceeding expectations.
  
• Growth Enablement: All critical BUK SKUs are covered, establishing a clear path to achieving the 300% growth target.
• Developed a simple, replicable strategy that can be leveraged for ecosystem building, M&A, and strategic partnerships.

‍

Unilever: Trend Research and Analysis for Strategic Product Development | 2017-2019

Unilever aimed to shift its innovation strategy from being R&D-centric to market-driven by leveraging emerging market trends. To achieve this, they partnered with Naked Innovations to undertake comprehensive research and analysis of parallel markets, helping identify high-potential growth areas and opportunity spaces.

Outcomes

‍

Unilever: Fostering Entrepreneurial Thinking with Design Thinking Workshops | 2017-2019

Unilever needed to infuse a culture of entrepreneurial thinking and creativity across its brand and product teams to break away from traditional, siloed approaches. Naked Innovations facilitated this cultural transformation through hands-on workshops focused on design thinking methodologies.

Outcomes

The workshops were instrumental in cultivating a culture of collaboration and innovation across the company. They not only empowered Unilever employees to think like entrepreneurs but also promoted stronger internal partnerships between departments. This led to more effective and innovative product development processes, directly contributing to the success of flagship brands like Magnum and Ben & Jerry's.

‍

Unilever: Building an Open Innovation Platform to Drive Global Collaboration | 2019

Unilever sought to expand its innovation efforts by creating an open innovation platform that could bridge the gap between various R&D units and global teams. Naked Innovations guided Unilever's leadership in building this platform to encourage collaborative and agile innovation across the organisation.

Outcomes

The open innovation platform enabled Unilever to break down internal barriers and allow for cross-pollination of ideas across different brands and geographies.

This contributed to the revitalization of Unilever’s product development process, enabling faster and more efficient collaboration. The platform helped establish a foundation for continuous innovation, ensuring that Unilever’s flagship brands remained competitive and responsive to market demands.

‍

Driving McCain’s Innovation Strategy around Texture | 2023  - 2024

McCain, a leader in the frozen food sector, partnered with Naked Innovations to delve into the trends shaping food texture, guiding their shift towards a market-driven R&D strategy.

Outcomes

• Insightful R&D Roadmap: Delivered a global insights report that guides McCain's R&D investments, transitioning from internal focus to market-driven strategies.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitated partnerships with startups and experts,  accessing new technologies and expertise to improve product texture and quality.‍
• Cultural Transformation: Fostered an emerging culture of innovation and customer-centricity, positioning McCain to adapt to market trends and consumer preferences.

"The key reason we choose Naked Innovations is their customer-focused approach. They tailor their strategies to fit our needs, drawing on past experiences to foster a collaboration that aligns with our organization's readiness. Simply put, they work with us." - Joe Lake Vice President R&D Applied Technology and Innovation at McCain

‍

McCain:  Fermented Potato Innovation Strategy | 2024

McCain partnered with Naked Innovations on a seven-month innovation journey to explore the potential of fermented potato products. The collaboration combined research, scouting, and a Challenge Lab methodology to identify new product opportunities, strengthen partnerships, and establish a repeatable mechanism for innovation.

Outcomes

• 2 Product Concepts: Novel prototypes exploring taste and texture.
• Methodology: Developed and documented a repeatable Challenge Lab process for future innovation.
• Collaborations: Expanded McCain’s external network by scouting 75+ players and actively engaging with 10.
• Repeatability: Summarised the full journey to ensure internal teams can replicate and scale the approach.
• Innovation Mechanism: McCain gained a tested framework (Challenge Lab) to accelerate new product development.
• Strengthened Ecosystem: Partnerships with startups and experts positioned McCain at the center of the fermentation innovation space.
• Strategic Learning: Answered critical exploratory questions around technology, feasibility, and consumer formats for fermented potato products.‍
• Future Readiness: Opened pathways for long-term sustainability and innovation initiatives, building momentum for further exploration.

‍

PRIMED: Driving Sustainable Bioeconomy Solutions Across Europe | 2024-2025

Naked Innovations joined the EU‑funded PRIMED consortium to turn under‑utilised biomass into profitable, circular value chains. Through five Living Labs in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Finland, the project equips rural regions with the tools, partners and business models needed to create green jobs and high‑value bio‑based products.

Outcomes

• Five Living Labs operational and co‑creating solutions with local primary producers
• 15 CBMBs in development, embedding equity and fair returns for rural workers.
• Second Open Call oversubscribed: 34 proposals submitted from six EU countries, doubling first‑round interest.‍
• Open‑Access Toolbox live, enabling partners to replicate successful models across Europe.

CONCAT Living Lab: Addressing the Effects of Climate Change on Local Catalan Crops 2024-2025

Naked Innovations has joined forces with the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC) to address the impacts on our local crops through CONCAT LL. CONCAT LL is a Living Lab set to redefine how we address climate change through an innovative, collaborative approach. CONCAT is proudly part of, EcoReady, an EU funded project aiming to promote sustainable practices and innovation in the agricultural and food sectors across Europe.

‍

EIT Food: Empowering Women in Agriculture (EWA) | 2021-2023

The number of women in agrifood is increasing, however there are still many obstacles in their way. This includes insufficient female funding, lack of female farmers they can learn from and no generational shift.

Outcomes

Each year, 10 women entrepreneurs were selected to take part in the programme (2021, 2022, 2023). 

Each entrepreneur was provided with mentorship, online training, funding opportunities and the power of a tight-knit community amongst the EWA participants. 

The outcomes are several successful startups who are revolutionising the agrifood sector through innovation and driving a positive impact to our food system.

‍

For full access to our case studies document contact us at info@nakedinnovations.eu