We talked about it a couple years ago and Naked Brand Group (OTCQB: NAKDD), a company originally only offering "innerwear" clothing products (premium underwear and T-shirts) for men, has delivered on its goal of launching a women’s collection of loungewear and sleepwear. The upstart company debuted its premier women’s collection of intimate apparel at the CurveNY show at the Javits Center in New York City in early August.
This morning, Naked Brand announced that the complete collection is now available for purchase at wearnaked.com with expectations that the new line will start hitting the shelves at boutiques and specialty retail shops in the United States and Canada in the coming weeks.
Incidentally, the company’s ticker includes the fifth letter "D" to reflect a recent reverse stock split. The one-for-40 split took effect on August 10. Per regulations, the D will remain on the company’s "NAKD" ticker for 20 business days.
The company’s board approved the split as part of a plan to pursue a listing on a national exchange, such as the NYSE MKT or NASDAQ.
The young company has seen its shares depreciate substantially from mid-2013 levels, but has evolved fundamentally to align itself for growth with the new diversified product portfolio and key team additions. Notably, in June 2014, Naked brought in intimate apparel and sleepwear industry legend Carole Hochman as CEO,
Chief Creative Officer and Chairwoman. Building her legacy over more than three decades, Hochman has manufactured her own line as well as collections for brands such as Chistian Dio, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, Jockey, Donna Karan, Tommy Bahama and more.
In June 2015, Naked scored with landing NBA superstar Dwayne Wade as a brand ambassador in the company’s "Role Model" campaign and newest member of Naked’s advisory board. Wade, a three-time NBA Champion, 11-time All Star and Olympic Gold Medalist, "also has the option in his sole discretion to become a member of the Board of Directors of the Company" for a period of 18 months, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wade is reported to have sought out Naked Brand for the partnership after he tried on a pair of Naked underwear, saying that the company has taken innerwear "to the next level."
The stage is set to see how these developments translate to the company’s financials. In the three months ended April 30, Naked reported sales of $259,366, up from $119,814 in the year prior quarter. That, of course, did not include the new women’s collection or any Wade influence. For the latest quarter, Naked posted a net loss of $1.8 million, compared to a net loss of $1.2 million a year earlier.
The quarter ended with Naked having $171,678 in cash, but that total was recently boosted with warrants being exercised by officers and other investors to generate gross proceeds of approximately $2.34 million. A private placement in June and July raised another $7.3 million.
Today’s news hasn’t done anything for shares of thinly-traded Naked Brand, holding at Tuesday’s close at $5.25 in late morning action.
