‘Every product we make has a story behind it’

Many people start businesses because they’ve identified a problem they want to solve. For Wayne Friesen, he wanted to offer a solution to the lack of time some have available to pay attention to their health.

Friesen started Innotech Nutrition in Winnipeg with his brothers in 2001. The inspiration for the natural health products company came after he read a number of books in the 1990s that outlined high-protein, low-carb diets to promote weight loss and disease prevention.

“All those books are about stickhandling your way through the North American diet and grocery store choices,” Friesen says. “I said to myself, the average busy family will have no time to eat and grow gardens, prepare foods and make good choices with their eating habits the way these books are suggesting.

“So I said to myself, well, these busy families will need some good, trustworthy products to make things easier for them,” he says. “Low-cost, nutritious products for running a growing family that’s involved in school and sports.”

The first product the company brought to market was NaturePro, a whey protein smoothie mix derived from grass-fed cows.

“It’s fortified with vitamins and minerals so that parents don’t have to chase their young kids around and get them to take a vitamin pill,” Friesen says. “Everything’s already in the smoothie. And, of course, everything is sugar-free. We don’t have any sugar on the premises.”

Today, Innotech offers around 40 products — all of them free of GMOs, fillers, sugar and artificial sweeteners.

A probiotic, a vitamin C powder, capsules that relieve joint inflammation and an intermittent fasting drink mix are among the company’s offerings.

They’re made at Innotech’s headquarters, which totals 10,000 square feet spread over two units in the St. Boniface Industrial Park: a plant that receives raw materials and manufactures the products and a building that houses the company’s offices and shipping operation.

Innotech employs 16 people in Winnipeg and some 10 commissioned sales people across Canada.

One of its most popular products is CardioFlex, a proprietary drink mix designed to promote the body’s natural ability to produce collagen and repair connective tissues to support cardiovascular health. It contains amino acids, vitamins and electrolytes and comes in three flavours: grape, orange and cran/blueberry.

Another popular product is Colflex, an oral spray that supports the immune and respiratory systems. It’s made from a blend of essential spice oils — oregano, thyme, spearmint and lemon — and has been available since 2012.

In 2017, Innotech asked researchers at the University of Manitoba to test the spray for its safety and effectiveness in inhibiting the growth of the bacteria often associated with colds and flu.

“It killed staph, strep, E. coli and salmonella in the trials — all the nasty things that are lurking in the back of your throat and between your teeth,” Friesen says.

Sales skyrocketed after the arrival of COVID-19, quadrupling during the first year of the pandemic and leading the company to double the size of its production plant, add new equipment and hire more staff.

In 2021, a Penn State college of medicine in-vitro study suggested the spray — available in cinnamon-lemon and arctic mint versions — is up to 99.9 per cent effective against coronaviruses. The Penn State team prepared laboratory tests to replicate the interaction of the human coronavirus 229E in the throat and oral cavities using Colflex. It was more than 90 per cent effective at eliminating the virus at a 60-second contact time.

The findings were “quite successful and very promising,” Dr. Craig Meyers, who led the team which conducted the study.

“We used the HCoV229E virus for this because compounds that are effective at inactivating 229E typically act similarly against other human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 or what we all know as COVID-19,” he said.

Colflex isn’t a COVID-19 preventative, nor is it a substitute for COVID-19 vaccination, according to Friesen, but it is another way for consumers to support their immune system.

Natural health products are a $13 billion industry in Canada and the fact Innotech tests its products so thoroughly sets them apart, says Kelly Lyons, marketing manager at Vita Health.

“Their products are truly second to none,” she says.

The Winnipeg health store chain has been selling Innotech products since 2003 and CardioFlex and Colflex are among its bestselling items.

“We’re really happy and thrilled to be working with a quality, local, made-in-Manitoba vendor,” Lyons says. “It’s important for us to feature as many local companies and products as we can and you don’t see that a lot with supplement companies.”

Friesen takes pride in creating products that go through rigorous testing to meet Health Canada standards. Each product has a natural product number, meaning they have been assessed by the federal department and “found to be safe, effective and of high quality under their recommended conditions of use.”

Friesen wants people to live long and healthy lives and believes alongside diet and exercise, Innotech products can help them do that. His three sons grew up using the products and he uses them daily himself, Friesen says.

“My goal is to not finish my life in a nursing home,” says the 65-year-old, an avid hockey player who says he keeps up with athletes one-third his age. “We have options and it’s all about making the right choices with food and fitness and natural health products.”

Innotech has about 20 products in various stages of development. The next product that will go to market is SmartCola, which will hit store shelves in the next few weeks. The powdered drink mix is boosted by amino acids and vitamins and tastes like soda — and as with all of Innotech’s products, it’s sugar free.

“Every product we make has a story behind it — we don’t just throw something into the market,” Friesen says, noting Innotech started working on SmartCola more than seven years ago.

“There’s two sides of natural health, remedy and prevention, so we’re designing products that address both of those aspects of a family’s wellness journey.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca