Fitness enthusiast Johnny DeBraga used NutriBio vitamins and supplements for nine years, ordering from the company’s website.

Not able to get the products locally, he decided to sell them himself as a side hustle.

“I had been working at Butterfield & Vallis,” he said. “I was learning how to contact suppliers, so I decided to do it myself.”

NutriBio started him out small, with three or four cases to sell. He spent the next six years building the retail side of things, slowly and steadily.

For a long time he took whatever money he made from BermE Supps and invested it back into the business.

“I have only just started paying myself $100 a week from it,” he said. “Keeping products in stock has been a challenge.”

Now he has a revamped website and is a member of the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation’s latest business incubator cohort.

As a teenager he seemed well on his way to a career in construction.

“I started working in construction when I was 12,” he said.

Two bad motorcycle accidents put paid to that. The first crushed his leg so badly doctors could not repair it with a rod. The other badly damaged his wrist.

“I was always interested in sport and fitness,” he said. “I worked out at the gym.”

He got a job at a hotel spa. When the fitness trainers were unavailable, he took over at the gym and later earned his certification online through the International Sports Science Association.

He started BermE Supps right before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.

“The supplier stopped selling outside of the United States,” he said. “Nobody knew what was going to happen. I didn’t sell anything for two and a half years. When things began returning to normal I restarted. Sales gradually resumed.”

He explained that fitness enthusiasts typically take supplements such as protein and creatine to help build muscle and aid in muscle recovery.

“When I started this business, I was targeting the hardcore gym users,” he said. “I was thinking they must spend money on their pre-workouts and proteins.”

Over the years his thinking has shifted. He has reduced the number of hardcore workout products he sells in favour of wellness lines.

“One of my challenges has been educating people on the products,” he said. “The science behind everything is phenomenal.”

He has recently rebranded the fitness side of his business to be called Savage Me.

“‘Me’ stands for ‘my evolution’,” he explained. “It is a way to help people become a stronger version of themselves.”

As a trainer, he is not centred on diets or quick fixes, but on building habits and helping clients make sustainable progress.

“I also just revamped my website,” he said.

He has an online storefront but does not take payment through it.

“I want to keep the human interaction with people,” he said. Instead, his customers pay through a bank transfer or through cash.

He loves it when clients send him photographs of their weight loss progress, even if it has only just begun.

“It lights me up — it motivates me,” he said. Mr DeBraga compared the joy he felt to looking at a puppy for the first time.

He recently joined the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation’s business incubator programme.

• For more information, seewww.bermesupps.com