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.
The company
Nirmal Purja, known globally as Nims, broke the record for summiting all fourteen 8,000 metre peaks in under seven months. The story built one of the most recognisable personal brands in the world. The apparel business that followed grew faster than the operation behind it.
The problem
Founder-led apparel with a founder on expeditions is a specific kind of hard. Production was managed reactively, suppliers engaged collection by collection with no continuity, and inconsistent technical specifications meant quality varied across the range. Margins eroded on a cost base nobody had engineered, and with Nims on a mountain for months at a time, nobody in the business had the authority to make operational decisions at pace. The brand was growing in spite of its operations.
What we did
Stepped in as fractional COO and ran the operation for two years. Rebuilt the supplier base into a vetted Tier-1 network with established terms and accountability, exiting the factories that could not hold the standard. Gave every product a proper specification: tech packs, quality standards, agreed tolerances. Restructured the buying and production calendar around a critical path the business could plan against. Re-engineered margin across the range without touching quality. One point of contact for everything operational, so the founder could be on K2 in January and know the business was running.
What changed
7% reduction in unit costs across the range.
37% reduction in average production lead times.
Three full collections delivered on time and on budget.
Supplier framework built, documented and handed to the in-house team.
Transition managed end to end: hiring brief, role definition, and a supply chain that was already working rather than one that needed fixing.
