Singapore is witnessing an interesting time for the food industry. There has been a surge in the number of healthier menus and health-conscious Singaporeans, characterised by the popularity of healthy eating. It seems like healthier (and delicious!) options have the potential for F&B operators to offer a greater variety of offerings to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Many food delivery companies are changing the way we can juggle between healthy eating and a hectic schedule at work, and The Naked Meals is one of them.
Founded by a pair of sisters with backgrounds in fitness and banking, The Naked Meals aims to strike a balance between healthy eating and work, by offering working class in the CBD the option of enjoying a healthy meal at their desks. They have hand-delivered up to 50 meal packets during lunch hours daily!
Meet Alison and Alicia Yen, the brilliant forces behind The Naked Meals. With passion and perseverance, their story is one we can all learn something from.
Tell us a little about yourself and the journey of setting up this business together as sisters!
My co-founder (and sister!) was a personal trainer in one of the elite gyms in Singapore, and she has been eating clean meals for many years. With her work schedule, she had to pack meals to the gym, and her meals piqued the interest of her clients too! Back then when I was working as a banker, my hectic schedule left me with few options for lunch, as most stalls would have been closed by then. My take away from this observation is, most people are facing the same problem of juggling between a hectic work schedule, odd-hour meal times and the lack of clean, healthy diets. Going forward, this gap in the market inspired us to start this together as sisters!
What does The Naked Meal mean?
It’s a figure of speech. In other words, our food is kept simple, or “Naked”, literally. We don’t believe in marketing gimmicks with sophisticated names or jargons. Plus, we like naming our food as it is. Apart from omitting artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives, we pay attention to details too. For instance, our meals don’t contain any sugar, salt or vegetable oil. These little details matter a lot to us because a small amount a day may lead up to detrimental health problems in the long run, and most people aren’t aware of that. Therefore, we have a strict quality control in the kitchen of preparing what goes into the food.
How would you see your business stand out from your competitors, with the surge in numbers of health-conscious Singaporeans?
Competitors are aplenty and new competitors will always enter the market. From the way I see it, competitors can easily copy ideas and concepts. What makes our business stand out is certainly the team behind The Naked Meals, our philosophy, our mission and beliefs. We like to build rapport with our customers, because we like to think of them as our friends too – especially those on a particular training programme or diet. In fact, we would add a human touch in our service.
What’s your vision for the business?
We want The Naked Meals to be an affordable and reliable healthy meal provider, especially to active sportsmen and busy professionals and executives, to make healthy eating an easy and sustainable lifestyle for all Singaporeans.
Where do you see your business in the next few years?
To be easily and readily available to people seeking clean eating options, and also to be a part of educating the next generation in choosing the right meals for good nutrients!
Growing with the strong trend towards healthy eating, Naked Food will provide many opportunities for the food service industry to offer food, which is not only just good for health, but also good for the taste buds! There’s also Grain, the on-demand healthy food that aims to deliver meals and cold-pressed juices within 15 minutes of ordering from its website.
As an observer of the culinary scene in Singapore, we’re certainly spoilt for choice!
So, who wants lunch now?