Nimsdai Store
Year:
2022 - 2024
Service:
Fractional COO
Industry:
Retail / Apparel
Size:
3 - 10 employees
Nirmal Purja built one of the most recognisable personal brands in the world from the side of a mountain. We ran the business behind it.
Introduction
Nirmal Purja - known globally as Nims - is a former British Special Forces operator who broke the record for summiting all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks in under seven months. The story captured the world. The brand that followed grew fast.
But building a global apparel brand requires a different skillset to climbing Everest in winter. As demand grew and the product range expanded, it became clear that the operation needed a leader. Someone who could own the commercial and supply chain function end to end, while Nims focused on what he does better than almost anyone alive - pushing the limits of human performance.
We stepped in as fractional COO. For two years, we ran the operation.
Challenge
The Nims brand had everything a founder-led apparel business needs to scale - exceptional story, loyal audience, genuine product credibility, and a founder whose profile opened doors most brands spend years trying to reach.
What it didn't have was operational infrastructure.
Production was being managed reactively. Suppliers were engaged collection by collection with no continuity or framework. Technical specifications were inconsistent, leading to quality variance across the range. Margins were being eroded by a cost base that had never been engineered properly. And with Nims spending significant time on expeditions and commitments, there was no one in the business with the authority or the expertise to make operational decisions at pace.
The brand was growing in spite of its operations, not because of them. That works until it doesn't.
Solution
We took over the operational function and built it properly from the ground up.
The first thing we addressed was the supplier base. We audited every existing relationship, exited the factories that couldn't consistently meet the quality and lead time standard the brand needed, and rebuilt the supplier framework around a vetted Tier-1 network with established terms, clear expectations, and accountability built in from day one.
Alongside that, we overhauled the technical development process. Every product in the range was given a proper specification - detailed tech packs, defined quality standards, agreed tolerances. The kind of documentation that removes ambiguity from the factory floor and means the product that ships matches the product that was signed off.
We then restructured the buying and production calendar. Rather than chasing deadlines collection by collection, we introduced a structured critical path that gave the business visibility across the full product pipeline - what was in development, what was in production, what was shipping, and where the risks were. For the first time, the brand had a supply chain it could plan around.
On the commercial side, we worked through the full margin structure across the range, identifying where cost could be removed without touching quality, and where the pricing architecture needed adjustment to protect gross profit as volumes scaled.
Throughout all of this, Nims had a single point of contact for everything operational. He could be on K2 in January and know that the business was being run.
Result
Over the course of the engagement the Nims brand moved from a founder-led operation held together by relationships and instinct to a professionally run apparel business with the infrastructure to scale.
7% reduction in unit costs across the range. 37% reduction in average production lead times. Full supplier framework built, documented, and transitioned to the in-house team. Three full collections delivered on time and on budget during the engagement.
When Nims was ready to bring operations in-house, we managed the transition - hiring the brief, defining the role, and handing over a supply chain that was already working rather than one that needed fixing.
That's the point of a fractional COO engagement done properly. You shouldn't need us forever. You should need us until the foundation is solid enough that you don't.
