Windsor entrepreneur's protein powder hits Costco shelves after 15-year journey

A Windsor, Ont., man has reached a milestone that every entrepreneur hopes to achieve: seeing a product they created hit the shelves of a global retail giant.

Dan Crosby, the founder of Canadian Protein, said he began his fitness journey in 2008, dissatisfied with the quality of workout products available in the U.S. and Canada.

"I thought I'd take it upon myself to fill the gap in the market up here in Canada with simplistic, good-quality, high-value products and that's when Canadian Protein was born," said Crosby. "It was literally [me] coming up with pilot runs of formulations in my kitchen."

Crosby opened his own supplement store in 2008 before later closing it to focus on selling his protein powder online.

The money he raised from those online sales was much needed years later when Costco emailed him in 2021.

"A lot of Costco employees were consuming Canadian Protein and they thought that the values of Canadian Protein were synonymous with the Costco brand and their customer base would really like the product," said Crosby. "We were awestruck when they reached out to us first. It was almost a situation where we were thinking, 'Is this really someone from Costco?' when we saw that email come through."

It was no joke. But more serious was Costco's high standards on product quality, packaging, and cross-contamination.

Using a portion of existing capital, Crosby said he invested "$1 million" in equipment that would go into a separate manufacturing facility dedicated solely to product sold at Costco.

"One of the biggest unknowns working with Costco is that you don't receive a purchase order until they're actually ready to order the product. So all of this was done in anticipation that we will be in Costco," explained Crosby.

The journey of refining the product took around 10 to 15 years, involving extensive trial and error to create formulas that could scale effectively in large manufacturing processes, Crosby said.

Currently, he added, the Canadian Protein team consists of about 100 people.

Canadian Protein's presence in Costco is a trial period, meaning the chain will introduce the product in more of its stores across the country if sales are successful.

Regardless of the outcome, Crosby said he's learned invaluable lessons about life and business.

"You don't have to be the smartest person. You don't need to have the best idea. You just have to be relentless in the pursuit of your goal," said Crosby. "I'd say the most important thing is perseverance."