We catch up with the pair to find out how their business plans have changed, and what opportunities they’ve spotted for the future.

“Naked Biotics are liquid probiotics; they are a blend of fermented bacteria, brewed with selected botanicals, which offer a natural, vegan, gluten-free remedy for good gut health. We have two different types of products: Restore, for people who have sensitive tummies or suffer from gut issues; and Maintain, which helps people keep their good gut health going.”

How did you go about starting the business?

“Around six years ago we opened a yoga studio called Hot House Yoga, where we used to sell probiotics in tablet form. Then, during a trip to South Africa, Amy and her dad met a family who were producing a liquid probiotic product; we tried the product out amongst friends and family and began selling it to students at our yoga studio, and were blown away by its effects. 

“Everyone is now talking about the immune system and health and well-being, so the online presence for us in that respect has been incredible”

“We did some research and saw that there was nothing on the market in the UK that was equal to this product, so we knew we were on to something special. We launched with the existing product developed by our South African contacts – Raw Biotics – which initially got great feedback, but when we tried approaching some of the larger chains like Planet Organic, we were told we weren’t quite there in terms of our packaging. So we pulled apart how we felt the brand should sit in the market and how that fit with our core values, and worked with a marketing agency to rebrand as Naked Biotics.

“There has been a big movement in the health and wellness industry in recent years, and research into gut health has grown. 70% of your immune system is stored in your gut, so that impacts how quickly you recover from illnesses, and 90% of your serotonin, your happy hormone, is also produced in the gut. It’s so important that we acknowledge the huge part our gut has to play in our health.”

How has the coronavirus crisis affected your business?

“We had a launch event planned for the first week of April, and we literally hit lockdown the week before. We’d hired a studio in Shoreditch to do a live fitness class and a brunch afterwards, giving everyone the chance to meet our team. Zoom was new to us, but we’d been facing the same challenge at our yoga studio – we took that whole platform online – so we were able to adapt the launch to be an online yoga class. It went down really, really well!

“During lockdown, everyone was living in a place of fear, so we had to pivot our strategy so that our focus was looking after people rather than trying to push sales – we just needed to sit back and be that caring platform that people needed. By doing that over the past few months, we may not see the financial benefit – but that’s OK because we’re building a community, and that, and educating people, is very important to us. We want people to believe in what we stand for.

“In some ways, lockdown was a blessing for us. We’ve stripped certain parts of Naked Biotics back – if there wasn’t an area that we were totally invested in, we reassessed it and worked it through, and lockdown has given us the space to do that.

“Everyone is now talking about the immune system and health and well-being, so the online presence for us in that respect has been incredible. We’d hope to see this positive effect continue.”

Where do you want to take Naked Biotics next?

“We want to have a bottle of Naked Biotics on every person’s work top so they can have a balanced, healthy gut for less than a pound a day. We want to continue to be affordable, and to keep educating people. Ultimately, we want to be the only brand that people go to when they need a probiotic, and to be the number-one-selling probiotic globally – we’ve got no reason to believe we can’t be!”

Naked Biotics is a winner of the NatWest SME: SOS independent ad break competition.