While teaching English in Japan in the early noughties, fitness enthusiast Ben Crowley noticed the protein supplements he used to augment his diet were significantly cheaper than in Australia.

On returning to Australia, and after toying with the idea of importing and on-selling a range of supplements, Ben decided a better option would be to make them himself.

Bioflex, the sole trader business he started in a spare bedroom in 2008, has since grown into one of Australia’s largest supplement manufacturers. Trading as Bulk Nutrients, it employs a staff of 100 and produces around 200 different protein powders, nutritional supplements and vitamins.

Eschewing middlemen and selling online to customers has enabled Ben to deliver a winning blend of high quality and keen pricing. It’s also seen his business become Australia Post’s largest dispatcher of parcels in Tasmania, where the company is based. Today, Bulk Nutrients ships around 50,000 orders a month from its 3000 sqm factory in Grove, 25 minutes south of Hobart.

Formerly a disused cool store for apples, the facility houses four manufacturing lines and a dispatch centre. It was acquired in 2013 for “much less than it would have cost to pour a slab on a greenfield site”, according to Ben’s sister-in-law and longtime Bioflex General Manager Jess Crowley.

“The decision was made to not overcapitalise or take on a lot of debt initially because that can burden a business,” she explains.

“Even today, we’re very considered about what we spend money on; very good at thinking about how we can do things in the most cost-effective way possible.”

As well as providing the fledgling business with room to grow, its rural location helped Bulk Nutrients amass a committed workforce of locals who relish the regional lifestyle.

“It’s nice to not be in the middle of an industrial estate – we’re in quite a rural environment here and it’s lovely,” Jess says.

“We’ve built something that allows us to work from a place we love. Bulk Nutrients provides a great product for customers and creates solid employment for so many people, some of whom have been with us for over a decade. Contributing to our community in that way is something Ben and I really enjoy.”

While it once seemed cavernous, strong growth during and after the pandemic means the Grove facility is now bursting at the seams. A capsule manufacturing facility was shifted off site in early 2024 and, with a move into complementary medicines in the offing, expanding the company’s physical footprint is high on the agenda.

So is the ongoing automation and digitisation of its operations. Bulk Nutrients has already established an inhouse data analytics team and is finding the insights it generates invaluable.

“The more we know about our customers, the more we can provide the service and the products they really want,” Jess says.

NAB Regional Banking Executive Elizabeth Anderson says pursuing a steady-as-she-goes expansion strategy has served Bulk Nutrients well.

“They’ve always made sure they’ve had the resources they’ve required for the next stage,” she says. “NAB has been there to support them from the outset and we’re proud to have watched them become a homegrown success story, one that includes the local community in its success.”