Bulk Nutrients / Bioflex Update September
As so much has happened with us over the last few months and I have been quite inactive due to responsibilities in both my personal life and the business, I thought it best to give people an idea of what we are up to, what has changed and what they can expect from us over the next 6 - 12 months.
I realise this information may be quite boring to many, so I have put together a few sections for those that want to read specifics.
New Factory
For the last few months we have been working very hard running the businesses around setting up our new factory.
While this was a massively positive move for us, it was a bit sad to reflect on why we purchased the building we did so cheaply and the changing face of business in Australia.
Sadly, our gain was someone else's loss and the move brought about much reflection as to how business evolves and the fact that everything has a lifespan.
If you haven't read it already, we were extremely fortunate to purchase an absolutely massive 2100m2 facility (which we have modified to suit our needs), the building was previously used to store and cool apples and other fruit (which means it is Aqis approved too), which for many years in Southern Tasmania was a huge industry.
As globalisation takes effect, cheaper imports became more freely available, industries which are very labour intensive (as fruit cultivation and processing is) become harder to sustain in a country like Australia - where wages are so high compared to China and even N.Z.
The result is a lot of vacant buildings around the area which I live, with many going for 1/3 of the price of their value just 5 years ago.
Again, while it was a huge gain for us, but at the same time very sad to see what was once a thriving industry, supporting so many Australian's (particularly Tasmanian's) is now almost completely dead.
Looking at the positives though, we now have a perfect base for manufacturing and warehousing a very large number of supplements. The new facility means there is literally no limit to what we can supply, particularly as we have utilised machinary which will improve our production efficiency by close to 400%.
New Pouches and improved production
Complimenting our new factory is a lot of new machinary we will use to improve production. Some time ago we purchased two mixers one which has a 500kg capacity (which is especially for proteins) and another which holds 120kg (for amino acids blends).
These will allow us to do much larger runs which means the chances of running out of stock is even less than before.
Attached to these we now have automatic hoppers and auto weighers which will make the transition from the mixer very streamlined.
I played a part in the design of this machinary which is all made to fit together perfectly. The benefit (apart from the the obvious improvements in efficiency) is that all powders will only be exposed from the time powders are loaded and when it is dispensed to our pouckes.
While contamination has never been an issue this obviously makes the likliehood even more remote.
We will have new pouches for all WPI and WPC as well as our pre workout and flavoured BCAA products. These will give the products a fresh new look, with an orange and white colour scheme.
New Products
With all of this new found space, we now have the opportunity to introduce more flavours to our existing products as well as many new products.
While we were always looking to add goods irecently it got to a stage with our old facility where we just had no room. The more products you have, the less space can be dedicated to each one and with products running out the door so quickly introducing more was goin to be very tough.
At the moment we are looking at adding choc mint to our WPI and WPC flavours within 3 weeks, with our pre workout powders and flavoured BCAA's to get raspberry and orange flavours to go with the lime.
Within a week we should have an electroltye formula as well as a specialised GH boosting formula.
We have Dim and CLA which will be here soon, these will be added to our range of encapsulated products.
Please keep in mind that we rely completely on customer feedback when it comes to new products. Are you paying too much elsewhere, or is there somethig you just can't get?
Let us know and we will do our best.
Sponsorships and samples
Through the months of September and October we are supporting more bodybuilding shows than ever before. With bodybuilders being so supportive of Bulk Nutrients and Bioflex, the least we can do is sponsor as many shows as is financially viable.
This year we are sponsoring most of the shows run by the INBA, the IFBB and Nabba, some of them (The INBA Nationals, and The Nabba Nationals as examples) we are the naming rights sponsor.
If you are at any of these shows, please take one of our samples. We should have our new choc mint flavours available in the later part of October and through the competition season we will be promoting all our proteins, pre workout products and flavoured BCAA's.
Through the last few months of the year as well as into next year we will be releasing tens of thousands of samples through various magazines and events.
While we don't expect everyone to use our products, we would certainly like to know that everyone has tried our samples and understands the great value for money that we offer.
I may update this post as I think of more things that need to be added.
Thanks again to all our customers who spread the word on our range. Thanks to you, we continue to grow and we will do our best to maintain a great range at very competitive pricing. Supporting us (as opposed to buying overseas) means keeping jobs in Australia and it supports local bodybuilding as we invest as much money as possible here.
Thanks,
Ben
I realise this information may be quite boring to many, so I have put together a few sections for those that want to read specifics.
New Factory
For the last few months we have been working very hard running the businesses around setting up our new factory.
While this was a massively positive move for us, it was a bit sad to reflect on why we purchased the building we did so cheaply and the changing face of business in Australia.
Sadly, our gain was someone else's loss and the move brought about much reflection as to how business evolves and the fact that everything has a lifespan.
If you haven't read it already, we were extremely fortunate to purchase an absolutely massive 2100m2 facility (which we have modified to suit our needs), the building was previously used to store and cool apples and other fruit (which means it is Aqis approved too), which for many years in Southern Tasmania was a huge industry.
As globalisation takes effect, cheaper imports became more freely available, industries which are very labour intensive (as fruit cultivation and processing is) become harder to sustain in a country like Australia - where wages are so high compared to China and even N.Z.
The result is a lot of vacant buildings around the area which I live, with many going for 1/3 of the price of their value just 5 years ago.
Again, while it was a huge gain for us, but at the same time very sad to see what was once a thriving industry, supporting so many Australian's (particularly Tasmanian's) is now almost completely dead.
Looking at the positives though, we now have a perfect base for manufacturing and warehousing a very large number of supplements. The new facility means there is literally no limit to what we can supply, particularly as we have utilised machinary which will improve our production efficiency by close to 400%.
New Pouches and improved production
Complimenting our new factory is a lot of new machinary we will use to improve production. Some time ago we purchased two mixers one which has a 500kg capacity (which is especially for proteins) and another which holds 120kg (for amino acids blends).
These will allow us to do much larger runs which means the chances of running out of stock is even less than before.
Attached to these we now have automatic hoppers and auto weighers which will make the transition from the mixer very streamlined.
I played a part in the design of this machinary which is all made to fit together perfectly. The benefit (apart from the the obvious improvements in efficiency) is that all powders will only be exposed from the time powders are loaded and when it is dispensed to our pouckes.
While contamination has never been an issue this obviously makes the likliehood even more remote.
We will have new pouches for all WPI and WPC as well as our pre workout and flavoured BCAA products. These will give the products a fresh new look, with an orange and white colour scheme.
New Products
With all of this new found space, we now have the opportunity to introduce more flavours to our existing products as well as many new products.
While we were always looking to add goods irecently it got to a stage with our old facility where we just had no room. The more products you have, the less space can be dedicated to each one and with products running out the door so quickly introducing more was goin to be very tough.
At the moment we are looking at adding choc mint to our WPI and WPC flavours within 3 weeks, with our pre workout powders and flavoured BCAA's to get raspberry and orange flavours to go with the lime.
Within a week we should have an electroltye formula as well as a specialised GH boosting formula.
We have Dim and CLA which will be here soon, these will be added to our range of encapsulated products.
Please keep in mind that we rely completely on customer feedback when it comes to new products. Are you paying too much elsewhere, or is there somethig you just can't get?
Let us know and we will do our best.
Sponsorships and samples
Through the months of September and October we are supporting more bodybuilding shows than ever before. With bodybuilders being so supportive of Bulk Nutrients and Bioflex, the least we can do is sponsor as many shows as is financially viable.
This year we are sponsoring most of the shows run by the INBA, the IFBB and Nabba, some of them (The INBA Nationals, and The Nabba Nationals as examples) we are the naming rights sponsor.
If you are at any of these shows, please take one of our samples. We should have our new choc mint flavours available in the later part of October and through the competition season we will be promoting all our proteins, pre workout products and flavoured BCAA's.
Through the last few months of the year as well as into next year we will be releasing tens of thousands of samples through various magazines and events.
While we don't expect everyone to use our products, we would certainly like to know that everyone has tried our samples and understands the great value for money that we offer.
I may update this post as I think of more things that need to be added.
Thanks again to all our customers who spread the word on our range. Thanks to you, we continue to grow and we will do our best to maintain a great range at very competitive pricing. Supporting us (as opposed to buying overseas) means keeping jobs in Australia and it supports local bodybuilding as we invest as much money as possible here.
Thanks,
Ben
