Duo’s ‘better for you’ ice cream business scores $2m Coles deal

A duo who started a business in their Toowoomba garage have landed a $2m deal with Coles while still working their day jobs.

The duo behind healthy ice cream GYM BOD have revealed how they scored a $2 million deal with one of the biggest supermarkets in Australia while still working full time jobs.

Cian Dawson, 28, and Courtney Brown, 29, started their business in 2018 from their garage, making their first High Protein Soft Serves tinkering on a Commercial Grade soft serve machine imported from China.

The pair then moved to Sydney from Toowoomba the following year, selling their “better for you” product around F45 gyms in an ice cream van, which is when someone suggested putting the ice cream in tubs.

Stream the news you want, when you want with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Courtney Brown and Cian Dawson started an ice cream company from their garage. Picture: Supplied

As this all unfolded, Cian was still working as a commercial analyst in IT for an infrastructure services company while Courtney worked as an asset manager for a defence contractor.

But the pair were working for just $2.50 an hour when starting up the company.

There are currently three flavours – Chocolate Pudding, Peanut Butter Salted Caramel and Cookies & Cream – and collagen sticks and protein poles.

Cian described the ice cream as about offering customers Better Option Desserts, which is what BOD stands for in the name, so people can enjoy ice cream without compromising health.

GYM BOD Ice Cream is high in protein, 96 per cent sugar free and has between 351-438 calories per tub.

GYM BOD started as a soft serve business. Picture: Supplied

“We are the biggest underdog in the freezer aisle – it’s actually insane that GYM BOD is on the shelf competing with the FMCG Conglomerates such as Unilever and Danone,” Cian told news.com.au.

For a while during lockdown, the pair were selling their ice cream through their Shopify website, with home deliveries every night to customers around Sydney.

“We had a freezer in the back of our car to hold the orders. It worked well during lockdown as everyone was home – however when lockdowns lifted, it was a logistic nightmare co-ordinating with customers for when they would be home so their ice cream wouldn’t melt,” Cian said.

“We were also focusing on getting our ice cream into IGAs and small grocers so our product was easier for our customers to get, and so we could get some sales data.

“I would call IGAs everyday on my lunch break to try and drum up sales. Many stores took our ice cream as a means to stop me calling them every week!”

The pair have continued to work their day jobs while running the business. Picture: Supplied

But things changed in March 2021, when armed with the sale data, the pair approached supermarket giant Coles and were granted a trial in 70 stores from November that year.

The deal went well and now GYM BOD can be found in every Coles freezer aisle around the country.

“Once the Coles trial was awarded, our whole business changed. We scaled up our manufacturing, did a brand name change, repositioned our branding and marketing,” Cian said.
“With Coles, we were no longer doing the home deliveries or touching the ice cream operations ourselves, and instead we were managing our contracted team of Manufacturers, Ingredient sourcers, Field Team, and Logistics.

“We had to do as much marketing as possible with a shoe string budget to get the word out there about our ice cream. If we didn’t hit the sales targets, we would have lost the opportunity for the contract, and we would have been bankrupt. It was – and still is – real ‘do or die’ stuff.”

The pair are proud of where GYM BOD has ended up. Picture: Supplied

They began selling in a truck when lockdown happened. Picture: Supplied

But it felt like everything paid off when they got the news that the Coles contract had been awarded.

“The day we got our letter from Coles with our contract award, Courtney and I both cried tears of sweet relief,” Cian said.

“And then it hit us that the really hard work starts! Coles now purchase our Ice Cream by the pallet load. We now do monthly production runs, with our Oct 22 Production being 48,000 tubs of ice cream.

“Our forecasted revenue from the National Coles deal is $2m. This is a huge level up for a two-person start up who used to make ice cream in their garage in Toowoomba!”

GYM BOD is also now sold in New Zealand, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as of 2023.

Customer feedback of the brand has been amazing, with stock flying off the shelves.

The pair never expected their dream to reach this level. Picture: Supplied

The pair want this to become their full time gig. Picture: Supplied.

Cian and Courtney never expected this when the duo started the business but they are so proud of the risks they have taken.

So, what’s the next step for this ice cream duo?

“It’s my dream to be able to run GYM BOD full time, and to say goodbye to my day job,” Cian said.

“I would love to have more time to work on exciting new product launches and collaborations with dream brands. It’s Courtney’s dream for GYM BOD to have it’s own manufacturing facility, so we can do faster product development and be more agile with our approach.

“We can’t wait to see GYM BOD Ice Cream on every supermarket shelf around Australia, and in major international markets.”