Nathaniel Anthony and Chris Anastasi have turned activewear brand Muscle Nation into a $27m ecommerce sensation

Two young entrepreneurs have created a retail sensation with their online sales of activewear and supplements, and it all began at a small study desk at home in Brisbane.

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

Like so many young entrepreneurs, they could hardly have had a more humble start.

From a small study desk at home in Brisbane, good mates Nathaniel Anthony and Chris Anastasi started selling their distinct line of activewear online in mid-2016.

Today, nearly five years later, the Muscle Nation business has exploded to become one of Australia’s fastest-growing retail brands and now includes a nutritional supplements arm that distributes to more than 300 outlets.

It’s turned into a highly-profitable e-commerce juggernaut, with sales surging about 200 per cent in 2020, including turnover of almost $10m on Black Friday alone.

The business generated more than $27m in revenue over the last financial year and Anthony says it’s on track to roughly double that amount this year from its range of more than 1000 products.

Nathaniel Anthony and Chris Anastasi, co-founders and owners of Muscle Nation

Helping drive much of that growth is a social media following of more than two million consumers, mainly women between ages 21 and 35.

The involvement of “social influencers’’ and brand ambassadors, such as fitness and fashion identity Hattie Boydle, has proved to be instrumental in propelling the expansion.

The pair, who once used a spare bedroom to pack orders, have churned through a succession of increasingly larger warehouses to cope with the demand and are now based at a 1700 sqm facility in Tingalpa.

They have even outgrown that space and are now in the process of building their own site just down the street, a 4000sq m complex with an expected end value of about $6m. The aim is to be up and running there for the next Black Friday mega-sale at the end of the year.

Just last month, the business partners made a move to acknowledge growing consumer demand for eco-friendly products.

After nearly a year of testing and finetuning, they released their first line of “sustainable” activewear, including sports bralettes, leggings, bike shorts and mesh crop tops.

The clothing, made with at least 75 per cent recycled polyester, is manufactured in China from plastic bottles and other reusable waste.

The company has also pivoted to an almost entirely digital warehouse, eliminating 95 per cent of its paper usage. All mail out packaging, including even the plastic bags, is now compostable, as well.

But Muscle Nation’s rise has not played out free from controversy.

Last year, a few of the company’s Instagram posts from 2017 resurfaced amid complaints that they were homophobic.

The firm later issued an apology, saying it “does not tolerate hate or bigotry,’’ and had “committed to change’’.

AUTO SHAKE UP

There’s been a major reshuffle at the top of one of Australia’s biggest auto retailers just as it bounces back to profitability.

Brisbane-based Eagers Automotive revealed Wednesday that CEO and managing director Martin Ward had stepped down effective immediately after 16 years at the helm.

He was replaced by current chief operating officer Keith Thornton, who has spent the past 18 years at the firm, formerly known as AP Eagers before its $2bn merger with Automotive Holdings Group.

Martin Ward

No reason beyond “succession’’ planning was wheeled out by the company but Ward is not driving off the lot quite yet.

He’ll stay on as an “adviser to the board and CEO’’ with responsibility for overseeing a $470m portfolio of property assets and investments, including the ambitious Brisbane Airport Auto Mall project now under way.

Ward did not return a call seeking comment but, in a statement to the market, said he was “delighted to pass over the reins’’.

Thornton revealed in the same announcement that he had worked closely with Ward and said he was “honoured to have the opportunity to lead this iconic 108-year-old Queensland company’’. He’ll be pocketing a minimum of $1.2m a year.

The shake-up coincided with the release of full-year results through December, with Eagers reporting a $191.5m net profit. It suffered an $80.5m net loss in 2019.

PET MARKETPLACE

Australia has one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world and we’re also addicted to the convenience of on-demand services.

Some pretty astute entrepreneurs have connected those dots to come up with Mad Paws, a pet care services marketplace that includes sitting, walking, grooming and boarding.

The company now aims to raise $10m as part of an IPO and start trading on the ASX late next month with a market cap of more than $40m.

Ally Petrie with her dog Pippa who love the new Mad Paws' fresh raw food dinner service. Pic Peter Wallis

Launched in 2014, the business connected more than 70,000 customers with 20,000 pet carers in its first five years in operation. That translated into about 180,000 services booked via either its app or website.

It turned over almost $2m in the last financial year, making money from each service and booking fee.

There’s clearly scope for it to grow.

The RSPCA estimates that there are more than 29 million pets across the nation, with almost two-thirds of households having one. No surprise that dogs and cats top the list.

The Mad Paws business model is very similar to Seattle-based Rover, which launched in 2011 and is now active across North America and Europe. It will start trading on the NASDAQ soon, valued at $US1.6bn.

UNUSUAL TWIST

There’s been an unusual twist in the case of a failed Aboriginal charity group in North Queensland.

Court orders tipped the Gulf Aboriginal Development Company into liquidation in late 2019.

The move had been prompted by the parent company of the Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort, which kicked off legal action after having no joy chasing up delinquent debts.

BDO’s Todd Kelly took on the job of winding up the charity and that’s where the matter appeared to end.

Yet on Wednesday we learned that administrators have now also jumped into the fray.

That job was handed last week to two Worrells operatives, Chris Cook and Adam Ward.

We couldn’t reach Kelly and neither Cook nor Ward responded to requests for comment. But it’s understood that Kelly appointed the pair because a creditor is trying to revive the charity through a “deed of company arrangement’’.

Established in 1997, the Burketown-based entity acted as a clearing house to receive money from the Century Zinc Mine project, about 250km northwest of Mount Isa, and then distribute those funds to various native title groups.