Biogen at 20 – How a Local Brand Became a Sports Nutrition Leader
What do you get when you blend two decades of a hustle culture, an unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit, and an unwavering collective belief in a brand? You get 20 years of excellence and a trusted leader in the sports supplements industry in the form of Biogen.
Since 2004, Biogen hasn’t just manufactured trusted, high-quality nutritional supplements. It’s become an integral part of the lifestyles and health and fitness journeys of everyday South Africans, elite athletes, and everyone in between who is passionate about their bodies and performance.
Originally conceptualised as an in-house brand for Dis-Chem – the first retailer in South Africa to carry sport supplements – the Biogen brand was built organically from the ground up by a small team of passionate and dedicated individuals led by Stan Goetsch, Craig Fairweather and Paul McHarg.
Since then, the Biogen team, led by Brandon Fairweather, a passionate athlete himself, and Travis Victor, has continued to build and transform what started as an in-house supplement range into a nationally recognisable brand trusted by the country’s best athletes and discerning consumers to help them Be Their Best.
The Biogen team’s collective pride continues to champion the brand’s ethos, energising sustained growth in a competitive market with their humble but hungry mentality, invigorated with Biogen-red blood that courses through their veins, pumped from a Dis-Chem-green heart.
The brand’s impact reaches deep into the fabric of South African sports culture and our active lives.
It’s a community-first brand that, together with athletes, ambassadors, educators, healthcare professionals, and iconic brands like Virgin Active, has built a movement that inspires better choices, fuels progress, and collaborates with some of the most recognisable sporting icons and events in the country.
Biogen has been instrumental in supporting and helping to grow some of the biggest sporting properties in the country, like Ironman South Africa, Ride Joburg 947, and the iconic stable of Dryland endurance events, while elevating niche sports like showjumping.
With an uncompromising commitment to safety and quality, embodied in its voluntary enrolment in the Informed Sport, Informed Choice, and Informed Protein quality-assurance programmes, Biogen is also a proud supporter of South African athletes at every level, including top sporting teams and elite-level competitors.
Multiple provincial and franchise South African rugby teams, the Toyota Specialized Ladies Mountain Bike Team, mountain bikers Candice Lill and Tylor Jacobs, and the RMB National Rowing Squad can count Biogen as one of their biggest supporters over the years.
Having earned its place as a leading supplement brand in South Africa, Biogen and the passionate team backing its continued success are ready for the next phase of growth.
