Winning Combination named Bioscience Company of the Year

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This article was published 07/02/2020 (2278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At its annual awards gala this week, the Bioscience Association of Manitoba (BAM) celebrated its 30th anniversary, naming The Winning Combination as the Bioscience Company of the Year.

The organization represents everyone from some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies like Bausch Health (formerly Biovail and formerly Valeant), medical device companies like Cubresa Inc. and independent agri-science researchers. It has cycled through three different names over the course of those 30 years. It was originally called the Health Care Products Association of Manitoba, then became the Life Sciences Association of Manitoba before it settled on BAM, which everyone agrees has the best acronym of the bunch.

Mark Colley, chief operating officer of The Winning Combination, was humble and gracious in accepting the award for company of the year.

“It has been a great year for us,” Colley said. “We had great success selling our protein powders and sport supplements and we transitioned to a new head office in 2019.”

The nutritional supplement manufacturer with 100 employees in Winnipeg, is likely the largest Canadian company in the field, with its product in all of the largest grocery chains in country including Costco.

The company has a wide range of products. Colley like to say it makes “everything an active, healthy, health-conscious person is looking for for their work out routine,” from protein powders to pre-work-out supplements and does custom contract services including tablet, capsule, protein powder production, herbal extracts (both liquid and encapsulated), blister packaging, meal replacements and ready-to-drink products.

The company provides supplements to about 20 professional sports teams and Colley says one of the keys to its success is the safety regime that it maintains.

All its product is certified by the National Sanitation Foundation, an American product testing, inspection and certification organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which does all the quality control testing for the major sports teams and leagues, a crucial test when it comes to the whole issue of performance enhancing drugs.

“They do a third party audit of our facility and then they will vouch that what we have on our label is what is in the bottle,” he said.

The other award winners at BAM’s 30th anniversary were:

most promising bioscience student of the year — Joanne Thiessen Martens, a PhD student in the department of soil science at the University of Manitoba;outstanding science educator of the year — Bob Adamson, a science educator with the Pembina Trails School Division for 46 years; andoutstanding leadership in bioscience — Kelley Fitzpatrick of NutriScience Solutions, who provides strategic advice and services in the fields of natural health products and functional foods.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca