Sports hydration and nutrition company BioSteel has expanded its Windsor facility to bring some manufacturing in-house.
Windsor entrepreneur Dan Crosby purchased the bankrupt brand in December 2023 and has worked at restructuring the brand ever since.
Powders and stick packs will be made locally and Crosby says the machines have the capability of producing upwards of 100 million stick packs per year, and between 1,000 to 10,000 containers of powder per day, depending on demand.
For now, Crosby says the sports drink will continue to be produced in Aurora, Ontario by Flow Beverage.
He says the new Windsor facility just went through the NSF certification process.
"It's basically ensuring that the product meets all specifications, as well as there's no banned substances. The BioSteel brand is known for being NSF certified, but our ability to now produce these products in house is massive for the brand. I mean the amount of innovation that we're going to be able to produce for the brand is going to be second to none, it's going to be next level."
Crosby is also known for his other brand Canadian Protein, and says the new certification for BioSteel could lead to new strategic partnerships with brands like NHL teams who coud want to personalize drink ingredients...
"Manufacturing is in my blood. I've been doing this for 15 years. This is what we know and being a business operator is where we excel the most, and that's how you build a truly successful company is with sound business practices."
He says the expansion of the facility will also mean an expansion for his team.
"We're hiring anywhere from 20 to 25 either full-time or full-time equivalent. We've brought on an extra five positions to help support front office careers with BioSteel, but for the manufacturing side of things, now that we're going to be up and running under NSF certification, is going to require at minimum 20 to 25 jobs."
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