When BOSS arrives at the headquarters of vitamins company Swisse in the gentrified inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, a throng of staff are drinking smoothies and testing a new range of prebiotic and collagen products in an open-plan kitchen.

Having ushered us from the basement carpark to the company’s office on the six and seventh floors, Nick Mann, group chief executive of H&H Group, the Hong Kong-listed health and wellness company that owns Swisse, is telling me about the difference between prebiotics and probiotics and why he thinks the future is bright for products designed to improve gut health.