This Windsor entrepreneur bought the bankrupt BioSteel brand last year. Here's where it stands now
Local entrepreneur Dan Crosby says BioSteel is profitable, will bring some jobs to Windsor
The Windsor, Ont., owner of a sports drink that's popular with pro athletes — especially hockey players — says the company is on stronger footing since he bought it last year.
Local entrepreneur Dan Crosby bought the BioSteel brand on Dec. 1, 2023.
Prior to that, it was being unloaded by a cannabis company, which was losing up to $15 million a month on the brand, and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection.
Now nearly a year later — BioSteel is on steadier ground. Dan Crosby joined CBC Radio Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge, and gave an update on where the company stands now, its profitability and expansion plans in the U.S.
What interested you in BioSteel?
Seeing the sheer number of people consuming the brand, being in hockey rinks and things like that, I was frequenting lots of sports facilities and I really started to notice it. I noticed it back in my beer league days playing hockey after I was done so I noticed it as 'drink the pink', and I started seeing it really start to have a ton of coverage, and next thing you know, I heard that it was going bankrupt.
One of the guys at work was like 'hey listen, this is right up our alley.' and that this might be a very interesting value since we have in-house manufacturing here in Windsor.
Were you hesitant, seeing how the company had gone bankrupt?
Of course. I'd probably say that the biggest thing was our ability to actually turn something like this around.
What was the bidding process like?
You almost have to go through a bidding process. The investment bank that was soliciting the sale has to, I guess, qualify the new potential buyer for actually making the sale because they want to make sure that the person buying the brand is going to have a successful turnaround.
How are you approaching BioSteel's growth to ensure it does not fail financially again?
That was the key thing that, in hindsight, that's why we passed a lot of the hurdles for the sale, is that we've been doing this for 15 years. I own another brand called Canadian Protein and this is right in our wheelhouse, and I've been owning and operating that brand for years, and this brand is essentially no different.
The marketing aspect is a little bit different, but that could be learned very quickly, but in order to turn a brand like this around with proper business principles and our ability to manufacture this in-house, it was absolutely key.
How has the manufacturing of the products changed?
It hasn't changed at all. The product isn't different whatsoever, we don't plan on changing the product. The only thing that we're going to be able to do once we plan on bringing manufacturing in-house in the new year.
What would it mean to bring this to the city?
Jobs. It's hard to say how many at this point. But it will be dozens of jobs, it's a big brand and has a big footprint still, especially in Canada. We're expanding into the states. It was large in the states, but it wasn't doing very well. We're bringing it back to the states through proper channels where it needs to be profitable in, and everything is going to be made in-house in Windsor, and ship right through the border in Detroit.
Are you profitable now?
Absolutely profitable. We're doing about half of the amount that BioSteel was doing at its height. BioSteel was on target to do roughly, I wanna say maybe $150 million at its height. Right now we're going to be doing half of that this year, and I'm totally comfortable with that. From where I picked it up and where it is now, I'm more than comfortable with that.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.