Interview: Behind Love, Bonito's bold activewear acquisition, and upcoming US plans

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Love, Bonito's move into the activewear space came about when co-founder Rachel Lim (pictured left) chanced upon a group of employees excitedly opening their butter. haul packages. "I wondered to myself what brand that was which could cause so much excitement and receive love from Millennials and Gen Z," she told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE in an interview.

After trying out their product, Lim said she was very impressed and reached out to butter. to know them better. That got the ball rolling and eventually led to Love, Bonito's acquisition of butter. for an undisclosed amount. Butter. has also since been rebranded to cheak. She added:

We do see that cheak will be able to contribute about 15% of our total revenue in 2023-2024.

Aside from the butter. acquisition, Love, Bonito also bought a small stake in natural healthcare start-up Moom Health. Lim described the partnership with Moom to be a "light touch" one as Love, Bonito is not heavily involved in its day-to-day operations and Lim is merely a board advisor. At the same time, there are currently no products or launches planned. Moving forward, however, Love, Bonito does plan to eventually figure out how it can increase its support and investment in the company.

lovebonito cheak

As a fashion brand, Lim said the company has always ultimately been in the business of women. Based on this philosophy, the company often weeks to partner with companies that show great tenacity and spirit in serving the same mission to empower Asian women. This also played a role in the establishment of partnerships with butter. and Moom.

Despite the acquisition, cheak is still very much an independent brand with its own marketing strategy and plans. Love, Bonito's role is to offer support in terms of business strategy and operational staff to help the business scale and grow.

"On the branding, storytelling and product side of things, we want [cheak] to be who it is. We don't want to dilute its essence," Lim said. Nonetheless, moving forward, the marketing for cheak will showcase the brand's cheeky, dynamic and vibrant characteristics. These will be reflected in the collaterals and storytelling tone.

When asked about cheak's involvement in Love, Bonito's overall brand partnerships given that marketing for the activewear label is being managed separately, Lim explained that the team is still ironing out the details post-acquisition. Hence, there is no definite answer for now. However, Love, Bonito will still involve the sister brand in events that it deems are a good fit for cheak.

"We have no problems with consumers thinking of cheak as a separate brand. Take Massimo Dutti and Zara for example. Some know they are under Inditex but some don't and it doesn't make a difference because both brands cater to different audiences," Lim said. It is also clear to Love, Bonito and cheak that they have different target audiences, with cheak in particular catering to the Gen Z.

On the talent front, Love, Bonito is not rushing to hire for the cheak team. Instead, the company wants to figure out cheak's growth ambitions and what is needed to plug and play, Lim said. "More importantly, beyond skill sets and technicalities, we're also looking for like-minded people who are willing to come on board and be willing to learn and grow together. After all, [cheak] is still an early-stage startup so perseverance is also needed," she explained.

So what makes cheak different from other brands? "Accessibility," Lim said. "From the very beginning when we first started out, it was really to democratise a great outfit. When I first launched the brand, to look good and feel good, you had to burn a hole in your pocket. So we decided to design purely for accessibility and also democratise fashion. These two aspects are very important for Love, Bonito and we hope to stay true to it as much as possible," she added.

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Which markets will Love, Bonito focus on moving forward?

The fashion brand bagged US$50 million in Series C funding last year and plans to expand its communities in omnichannel markets through its extended category offerings and community outreach. It is also beefing up its loyalty programme with more relevant brand partnerships and collaborations.

love bonito hk On the expansion front, Lim said there is a potential to add "a couple more stores" in its home market of Singapore but declined to offer specifics. That said, it also plans to focus on Hong Kong, US, and the Philippines in the next few years.

It launched with a bang in Hong Kong last August via a dedicated website and also took over the city's iconic trams. A social media campaign was also rolled out to reward 500 lucky winners with a limited-edition pre-loaded Love, Bonito branded Octopus card and a Love, Bonito website shopping voucher. In July, the brand launched its first flagship store in Hong Kong after operating purely online for over three years in the city. This marked Love, Bonito's first brick-and-mortar outlet outside Southeast Asia.

"Hong Kong has really been doing surprisingly well for us. Hence, we want to continue monitoring the market to figure out if we need to invest more resources into [the market]. We are looking at the Asian diasporas around the world and the regions where we already organically have quite good traction. We are looking at the US because there has been very strong organic traction for us, mainly from the Asian Americans living there," Lim explained.

The brand declined to share specific growth numbers for the Hong Kong market but stated that it experienced "tremendous double-digit growth in Hong Kong through its online channels and string of pop-ups". Love, Bonito has been in the city since 2019 when it began shipping to customers via its international eCommerce website.

For the US, in particular, Love, Bonito is exploring the potential of a pop-up.

We always believe in firing bullets before we commit, so that's like opening pop-up stores in different areas to test and see how they work before having a long-term store.

Similarly, it is also seeking out potential opportunities in the Philippines. "There is a shopping mall culture in the Philippines, they love going out and we want to see if there are any opportunities for perhaps pop-ups to really engage with the community further," Lim added.

When asked about its expansion plans for the next two to three years, Lim reiterated that Love, Bonito will focus on Hong Kong, US, and the Philippines unless there is another market that sees sudden exponential organic growth. Aside from geographic expansion, the brand is also looking to grow in categories and verticals, for example, activewear which it has already achieved with the butter. acquisition, as well as in the areas of wellness and lifestyle.

Will Love, Bonito launch another NFT?

In January, Love, Bonito unveiled its Tiger Bloom NFT done together with visual artist Kristal Melson, also known as KrisonAutopilot. The artwork relates to the re-emergence of the self through the journey of becoming a mother. It is also in line with the Love, Bonito theme of "Journeying with Women" which showcases the brand accompanying Asian women through various stages of their life.

While the brand does not have any other specific plans for NFTs at the moment, Lim said it witnessed "an interesting uptick" with January's NFT launch. In fact, the collection sold out within 30 minutes and a portion of the proceeds made from it were donated to Playeum, an organisation dedicated to creating equal opportunities for children from marginalised families and with varying disabilities through play and the arts in Singapore.

According to Lim, the NFT launch was an example of Love, Bonito dabbling into new spaces to see if it makes sense for the brand before doubling down on investment. "It's like firing bullets before we fire a cannonball," she explained, adding that the team wanted to test if NFTs were worth it as well as their growth trajectory in relation to the brand.

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