A small, efficient team is mixing things up in the competitive protein bar market.
It all started in a home kitchen during a hectic day in 2014.
“I was at home with three small children and I love telling this story because I burned a pot of oatmeal,” founder and CEO of Cranked Energy Cheryl Zealand said. “My oatmeal breakfast was on the stove as I was changing the twins’ diapers and I thought, there’s got to be a better way for me to eat, I’m so busy.”
That moment inspired Zealand to create an easy grab-and-go bar. Cranked Energy was born, but it took years to perfect the recipe.
“It took like three years to get something that was edible, protein bars are hard to make,” Zealand said. “They’re usually known for being chalky.”
Zealand is a certified professional accountant by trade but in 2019 she went all in with Cranked.
As her bars make their way across Canada, she hopes the recently upgraded packaging will help take them even further.
“We just trademarked in the (United States) and Canada so we’ve got a couple of years to start expanding into the U.S. as well,” Zealand said.
Across town, another former accounting professional never intended to create a health food company. Her inspiration to make a nutritious, satisfying snack came during a difficult time.
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“My daughter was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago and through that journey, while she was on treatment, she was having some side effects that stopped her from eating,” said Michelle Gospic, founder and CEO of The Healthy Nut.
Gospic had been making a healthy bar for a while but once it became an important part of her daughter’s treatment, they both decided to market The Healthy Nut protein bar.
“That was two years ago and it’s evolved from an online platform to retail stores,” Gosipc said. “We have sought out national distribution.”
While The Healthy Nut grew, Gospic’s daughter was beating cancer. Today she is cancer free and helps her mom run the business.
While both Cranked Energy and The Healthy Nut have experienced success over the last few years, it hasn’t come without challenges.
Zealand always had a vision of her bars having fun, bright cool packaging but she quickly found that making a label is a challenge in itself
“Font size and placement and what you can and can’t say on food,” Zealand said. “That was a huge learning experience.”
As for Gospic, managing inflation has been her biggest test.
“Your shipping costs, supply chain, it’s just across the board. Every manufacturing company or every other company has faced a lot of increase also as well,” Gospic said. “We are trying our hardest to keep our costs down to stay where we’re at so it’s affordable for everyone.”
Both Gospic and Zealand are proud to put Winnipeg products on the national map and soon and hope to expand internationally.
“Truly it’s always been about health,” Gospic said.
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