Hi everyone.
I’m 28yo living in Morocco. I am a mathematics professor and make fairly decent money with relatively few expenses so I’m saving up quite a bit every month.
I want to start my own business at some point and there’s one particular idea that’s been on my mind for a while.
To give you some context, protein powder (and supplements in general) is absurdly expensive around here. 5 pounds of whey is about 100$ in a country where the minimum monthly wage is ~300$. There is no local supplement company, and orders from abroad are heavily taxed. I have to pay an extra 30% for every foreign order. Moreover, since whey is a leftover product from cheese making, I’m assuming there is a ton of whey here that is just being wasted and could be obtained for a cheap price. That’s why I’ve been thinking that starting up a supplement business, starting with just whey protein powder, might be a good idea.
I might be talking out of my a$$ and missing the bigger picture, and that is why I’m bringing this up here. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
Using a supplement company’s forum to ask for advice on how to start your own supplement company just comes across as poor taste to me.
I did think about that, but there are virtually no Biotest products being sold in the Moroccan market.
My son spent a couple of months in Morocco last year. He said the same thing.
I think its a matter of scale. Like there are maybe only a couple of primary milk protein isolates manufacturers in the US. Everybody else is just labels.
So you have to be able to produce enough for it to be worth it, let alone competitive, which is probably by the ton.
Might be better getting the blending machinery and creating a custom blend or novel flavor than trying to convert raw liquid whey into finished product.
Have you considered making a compelling business case and reaching out to Biotest people?
You’re from a country of almost 40 million that produces a shitload (2,5 billion litres) of milk anually and X (I have no idea how many) gym goers. You could make a compelling business case delineating importing, distribution, partnerships with gyms to exclusively offer Biotest products to their members, localization of packaging (translation to Arabic), cooperation with local dairy producers (again, shitload of milk and relatively cheap labor) even expansion further into the entire North African market if the initial push is successful.
Even with high custom taxes a viable scenario could be found.