Awards judges go peanuts for Macro Mike

Written on the 3 October 2018 by Gold Coast PR Company Consulting Hall

An emerging young Gold Coast health food products business, which was started by a fitness and bodybuilding competitor though the power of social media, has picked a major award.

Macro Mike, which was established by amateur fitness and bodybuilding competitor Mike Kellett two years ago, has won the Health and Wellbeing category of the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards for September.

Macro Mike provides a range of more than 50 health food products ranging from healthy 'Clean Treats' to a high-protein, low-fat peanut butter and a plant-based protein that's taking the fitness industry by storm. While 90 per cent of its sales come from Australia and New Zealand, the company is already selling products worldwide.

Mr Kellett said the business had its origins while he was training for various fitness and bodybuilding competitions.

While most competitors were preparing for the competitions by restricting themselves to a diet of protein and vegetables, Mr Kellett was enjoying a diet that included brownies, pancakes, and waffles while still successfully competing at a national level.

"I created an Instagram page called Macro Mike and I'd post all my recipes, daily food intake and my body composition changes from eating in this manner,'' said Mr Kellett.

"People from all over the world would message me asking how I did it and if I could help them do the same.

"I knew it wasn't really a business model to make brownies all day for others and I most definitely didn't have the capital to invest in a café so I decided to create a range of whole food dry mixes, which I could ship throughout Australia and eventually worldwide."

Starting with $10,000 and running the business while still working in a commission-based sales role in the evening, Mr Kellett started developing different products and building the foundations of the business.

"I put together some samples and posted them on my social media account asking if anyone wanted to purchase some of my exclusive trial mixes,'' he said.

"Overnight the post achieved an organic reach of 100,000 people across Instagram and Facebook and I woke up to hundreds of messages from people wanting to pre-order my Mixes".

"I sat back and said to myself, this might actually go somewhere."

Now the Macro Mike range of products is available in hundreds of health food and supplement stores across Australia while its online store has gone from 2-3 orders daily to as many as 200 orders a day. In the past 12 months the business has grown from being based in the spare room of Mr Kellett's apartment to a 350sqm state-of-the-art production facility and warehouse with a soon-to-open café in Burleigh Heads.'

Mr Kellett said he was honoured to win the award but the business still had potential to grow much larger.

"We've barely touched the surface of the business's potential but we have just negotiated deals with some of the biggest chain stores in Australia and were on track to get our products in over 1000 stores Australia wide by the end of 2018,'' he said.

In the other categories FAB Dock captured the Mayor's Innovation GC Award, Natura Pacific cleaned up the Student Employability Award , Orbitz Elevators lifted the Professions and Business Services trophy, Usher Group won Family Business, Condev Construction cemented a win in Construction and Trades Award, Digga Australia grabbed manufacturing, TrueERP boosted the IT and Digital Business Award, Gold Coast Turf Club raced away with Tourism, Hospitality and Events Award, Lauxes Grates delivered to win Retail, Wholesale and Distribution Award, and Little Scholars School of Early Learning ran away with the Emerging Business Award.

The awards' major sponsors include Ramsden Lawyers, Study Gold Coast, City of Gold Coast, Regional Development Australia Gold Coast, Choice Homes, Westpac, Harvey Norman Commercial Queensland, Optus Business Centre Gold Coast, Griffith University, Gold Coast Airport, Pindara Private Hospital and The Southport Private Hospital and Flight Centre Business Travel. The awards' media sponsors include the Gold Coast Bulletin, Nine NBN Television, 92.5 Gold FM and 90.9 Sea FM.

The GCBEA's major supporters are KPMG, Document Solutions Australia, Bloomtools, Consulting Hall, The Graphic Design Company, The Star Gold Coast, Regina King Photography, Bruce Lynton Jaguar Land Rover and Bond University.