Small Business: How Swole Foods grew from gym floors to supermarket shelves

Taran Machra, founder of Swole Foods, fought through tragedy to build a nationwide ready-made meal business that spans across the country.

Taran (Taz) Machra, founder of Swole Foods, talks to Tom Raynel about his journey from tragedy to success and how he has built an online community around the brand. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is Swole Foods?

We make healthy, ready-made meals to give people time back as they get more time-poor. There’s a growing awareness that people want to make better eating decisions. We solve that problem by having that food delivered directly to your door, ready for you whenever you need it.

We do all the work in the background, so your box will tell you exactly how much protein, carbs, and fats are in the meals so you know what you’re eating. We’ve also branched out and launched a protein ice cream and a protein pancake mix for those other cravings.

What inspired you to start the business?

My background is that I’ve been a nutritionist and a personal trainer for over 20 years. I went through massive personal hurdles in my own life in 2013 when, unfortunately, both my parents passed away within three months of each other. I was in a very lost place and didn’t really know what I was going to do with my life.

I went on this journey to try to open my own gym, and I was able to open a small 400sq m gym in South Auckland in 2018. I was living there in order to make it work. I started signing people up, and then six months down the road, they wanted to cancel their membership because they weren’t seeing the results.

What I realised was that people who go to the gym sign up and buy $200 shoes and all of the gear, but then they do themselves a disservice because they don’t eat right and don’t see the results. I thought if I can tackle the food problem, where in my gym on the way out, someone can grab a healthy meal, that’s a win-win.

Swole Foods designs all of its meals to contain the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats, to ensure customers meet their macro-requirements.

How did you scale up the business?

The idea was to solve the problem of 400 members in my own gym. We found a contract manufacturer and got 300 meals made, and we were able to sell them all in just 18 days. That’s when I thought maybe this is bigger than what I imagined. Other gym owners started reaching out through social media because they saw people buying our meals.

We started putting freezers in their gyms and selling to their members, and that was in November 2019. Once the first Covid lockdown began, our online inquiries and our email went through the roof. After the second wave of Covid hit, I made the decision to hire people, move to a warehouse and really go bigger. I sold the gym and got some funding, and that allowed me to dive headfirst into Swole Foods, and I haven’t looked back since.

The business has a large online following, how have you been able to build a community?

We spoke one language and we spoke to one customer, we didn’t try to be everything for everyone. The only thing I knew best was my customer; I knew them inside out. They have the motivation, but they lack the discipline, so everything is designed around that little push to get someone across that line. You’re putting in the work in the gym, you deserve better results, so give us a try.

We associate ourselves with key athletes in different fields, from CrossFit to MMA to cyclists to everyone. It was how do we build a community of people who are living and breathing to put the message out on their platforms.

Swole Foods designs all of its meals to contain the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats, to ensure customers meet their macro-requirements.

What does the next few years look like for the business?

Definitely retail expansion, our ice cream is going to be in supermarkets everywhere, and the pancake premix has also been accepted by Foodstuffs. We’re in about 25 supermarkets with Foodstuffs right now and about 70-odd gas stations, but from late October we’re going into 146 Woolworths supermarkets.

One big jump that we’re taking as Swole Foods is that we are going to launch our own online eight-week challenge. We’ve been planning this for about two years now, and we’re going to launch the first one in the new year, which I’m really excited about.

What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?

The way I try to operate is I’ve detached myself from my role in the business, so it’s not what Taz wants or what he doesn’t like. As the CEO of Swole Foods I’ve got these roles that I need to do, and I can’t put my personal likes and dislikes in between that.

Do you have a small business story you want to share? Send your pitches to tom.raynel@nzme.co.nz.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.