Fresh off closing a $7.3-million private placement, Vancouver men’s underwear maker Naked Brand Group Inc. (NAKD:OTCBB) is moving its corporate headquarters to the Big Apple.
In a July 30 letter to shareholders, newly appointed Naked Brand CEO Carole Hochman confirmed president and founder Joel Primus would be relocating with his family from B.C. to New York City.
Primus told Business In Vancouver the plan is to shut down the Vancouver office within the next few months. He added some of the Vancouver employees would be retained to work for the company remotely in a different capacity on the West Coast.
“It’s a big statement that the brand is realizing on its plan to be globalized,” Primus said.
“New York is really the centre of the world as far as fashion is concerned.”
Primus said he’s probably flown between B.C. and New York at least 20 times in the past year, which has become inefficient for both his business and his family.
But he said he would miss Vancouver dearly.
“We are where we are because of where we started.”
Naked Brand was originally founded in 2009, shortly before Primus appeared on the CBC show Dragon’s Den.
He pitched his business plan to panelists, but the venture was not picked up.
But by 2012, Naked Brand had opened a distribution centre in Los Angeles after revenue more than doubled from US$193,000 compared with US$82,000 the year prior.
Naked Brand joins other companies such as Paperny Entertainment, PNI Digital and Coastal.com, which all had head offices in Vancouver up until this year.
In those three cases, larger corporations bought out the local firms, which have maintained subsidiary offices in Vancouver.
