NAKEDPizza Gets Investment to Expand

The Kraft Group have bought a stake in the NAKEDPizza chain of restaurants. NAKEDPizza is a chain that claims to sell healthy pizza by paring it down to the essential and natural versions of the original. The website and the packaging also comes with Pollan-esque messaging.

The investment by Kraft will allow the group to expand through franchising in Q4 2009. However, unlike traditional franchise models, NAKEDpizza won’t be selling units or territories, but awarding regional developers based on criteria that include their cultural fit and commitment to the principles of the company. In the press release of the announcement NAKEDpizza co-founder Jeff Leach says:

“There has been a wholesale abandonment of responsibility, if not common sense, across the entire food supply continuum, from growers to fast food. So many health problems in our country –issues at the center of the healthcare reform debate– can be traced to highly processed and packaged foods that are severely out of step with human ecology. Our contribution to the solution is pretty simple: a pizza that tastes good, is better for you in a meaningful way and starts a conversation. We’re kind of the squiggly light bulb of fast food. NAKEDpizza can’t solve the whole problem by itself, but it helps because it gets people thinking, questioning and talking. We’re saying what we think is important and–this is the good part–our customers tell us exactly what they think. Rich, authentic exchange around issues that matter and a damn good pizza. Reciprocity is core to our brand.”

NAKEDPizza is backed by long-time PSFK friend Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet. He spoke at length about the good-food company at the PSFK Conference 09. In his weekly column for the New York Times Magazine, journalist Rob Walker highlighted NAKEDPizza and the work Rob has been doing to support their brand:

Robbie Vitrano, the founder of a New Orleans branding agency called Trumpet, noticed one of the pizza boxes in a client’s office. “On the box was essentially a dissertation on how food is processed in your lower intestine,” he recalls. “I thought, Well, they’re either geniuses or absolutely insane.” Vitrano’s firm has in recent years worked with a lot of smaller local companies seeking national audiences (like a performance-apparel company called thriv and a self-explanatory product called Bruise Relief) and has become what Leach calls his “brand muse.” This means Vitrano has helped the pizza-makers serve up a more palatable pitch — starting with a name that suggests additive-free naturalness in a more fun way.

Vitrano also encouraged the use of social media, in line with the idea that Naked Pizza might be better served by dialogue than dissertation. “Not everybody is ready for this,” Vitrano says of the more elaborate elements of Naked Pizza’s thinking. Leach and Crochet have even put up a billboard advertising their Twitter handle. This doesn’t mean they backed off their more idealistic goals. If you want to read a lengthy essay, complete with journal citations, about the company’s philosophy of eating, it’s on the company blog. Entries run as long as 1,400 words. But if you just want some pizza, that’s also fine. “You can dig as deep as you want,” Leach says, “or not dig at all.” …Aside from the blog and the Twitter feed, he says he intends to continue to communicate via pizza box: “We’ll use this pizza to have a larger conversation with you about the food supply.”<.blockquote>

NAKEDPizza

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