TROY Bremner and Christine Envall have spent the past two decades muscling in on the Gold Coast success story in more ways than one.

Bremner has spent 20 years in the food manufacturing industry as well as personal bodybuilding, and Envall is three-time world champion and Australia’s only International Federation of Body Building and Fitness professional female bodybuilder, as well as a qualified food scientist.

It was the perfect recipe for the pair to become founders and directors in 2001 of International Protein – a range of sport nutrition products.

From their Ormeau headquarters they produce Australian-made supplements designed for high-performing athletes.

The brand also includes fat burners, pre-workouts, creatines, mass gainers, glutamines, amino supplements, and plant-based and dairy proteins.

“Originally, when we started, there were only eight or nine companies in Australia selling these kinds of products. Now there are between 300 and 500,” Bremner said.

“We were one of the first companies who were not only looking at the benefits but also the flavours. We not only wanted our products to be good for protein but to taste good as well.

“We found it easy to penetrate the market. We both trained and used sports’ supplements and weren’t just investors looking to make money.”

International Protein Co-Founder and Director Troy Bremner

It’s a long way for Bremner and Envall who started the business as a “little warehouse in Southport” before moving to Ormeau five years later to ramp up manufacturing.

“When we launched we just had a couple of products and now we have 48 products on the market,” he said.

“Many of the products we launched with are still exactly the same today. We are very choosy about what goes into our products and people trust our products.”

International Protein Co-Founder and Director Christine Envall

International Protein also makes different brands of protein supplements for another 32 companies around Australia, with their total product lines numbering 780.

In addition, they are strong exporters into South East Asia with China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia major customers, as well as Brazil, Qatar, the US, New Zealand, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Sixty staff are employed at their 3200sqm2 site at Ormeau.

Protein water is just one of the many items manufactured by International Protein

“When we decided to go into manufacturing the amount of discouragement was unbelievable, but we were fairly confident we could get it going on the Gold Coast,” Bremner said.

“Back then the Gold Coast was trying to develop itself as a tourism hub. Now the Gold Coast has a lot of programs around encouraging people to open up manufacturing here.

“We’ve had a couple of grants from City of Gold Coast including one around business coaching and I got a lot out of that grant. A lot of the pointers our business coach put in place we still follow now.”

These days International Protein turns over between $52m and $56m a year and is “ticking along” according to Bremner.

Future plans include contracts with one of Australia’s largest sporting nutrition chains and health food stores which are predicted to add another $20m to $30m a year to the bottom line.

“Domestically we are lucky to be an old enough brand to be trusted where our market is stable and continues to grow,” he said.

“Internationally, we have gone from around 10 per cent of the business to 40 per cent and that’s getting bigger year-by-year.

“I always thought the business would be successful but I didn’t think it would reach this level.”