Partners
For large organisations facing complex agrifood challenges, we curate and orchestrate tailored ecosystems of relevant stakeholders. We design engagement processes that enable corporates to co-create practical, scalable solutions within a dedicated network built around their specific priorities.
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.
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
- Trend research informed Unilever’s market-driven innovation process.
- Ensured new products aligned with real consumer needs and future trends.
- Market-pull approach helped identify untapped opportunities for brands.
- Positioned brands for success in competitive and fast-evolving consumer goods markets.
- Set a goal of increasing new product revenues by €50 million per brand annually, based on insights.
- Investment in NPD based on emerging trends.
- Exposure to startup founders.
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.
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.
