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1. “ Knowing when
to seek help is a
sign of a good
entrepreneur ”
Zef Eisenberg
Founder of Maximuscle and Maxicorp
Summary
Zef Eisenberg started selling sports nutrition publications from 1991 under the name Maximuscle,
with branded sports nutrition products arriving in 1995. He also worked as a fully qualified personal
trainer. His company Maximuscle aimed to take sports nutrition away from the murkier world of
dubious scientific claims, dubious ingredients and dark gyms and into the mainstream. With retail
sales worth £85 million in 2010, he succeeded.
Eisenberg also succeeded in his aim of achieving a well-managed exit. Following a part sale £10
million private equity deal in 2004, and another part sale £75 million private equity deal in 2007,
Maximuscle was bought by GlaxoSmithKline for £162 million at the end of 2010. The planning that
went into Eisenberg’s lucrative exit provides some extremely good signposts for anyone who wants
to build and then sell a business.

2. Maximuscle and Maxicorp 154
Timeline Profile
1991 Zef Eisenberg In 1993, a young north London bodybuilder and qualified personal
publishes his first
book about sports trainer, Zef Eisenberg, self-published a book about sports nutrition
nutrition
products using his savings of £3,000. It exposed the false science
1995 Maximuscle starts
of many products on the market, and claimed that too many were
selling sports
nutrition products a waste of money.
2004 £10 million private
equity deal with The book quickly sold out its first print run, and Zef Eisenberg set
Piper Private Equity
out to build on its success and his customers’ desire for further
2007 £75 million private
knowledge and quality products. From the proceeds of the book
equity deal with
Darwin Private sales he launched his own branded sports nutrition business,
Equity
Maximuscle, with products based on sound scientific research and
2010 Maximuscle sold to
GlaxoSmithKline for clinical studies.
£162 million
The products were initially sold via direct mail, then through trade
sales and online. The company abandoned a short-lived retail
venture because aspects like staffing, stock control and dealing
with theft were a drain on management time. As part of its growth
strategy of taking sports nutrition into the mainstream, it has
managed to persuade major chains like Tesco, HB, Boots, Asda
and Argos to sell its products, as well as gyms, sports shops and
other specialist retailers.
Eisenberg has also built the brand through endorsements by high-
profile sports teams, including the Welsh Rugby Union, the England
and Wales Cricket Board, British Judo, London Wasps and Ospreys
rugby clubs, and Celtic and Rangers football clubs. Ambassadors
for the brand include Naseem Hamed, rugby players Josh Lewsey,
Gavin Henson and Lee Byrne and English cricketer Stuart Broad.
“Make sure you have
In 2004, Maximuscle sold some shares in a £10 million private
at least three years of
equity deal with Piper Private Equity. This was followed by a £75
increasing sales, an
million private equity deal with Darwin Private Equity in 2007, in
effective management
which Eisenberg retained a 30% shareholding.
team, a business that
does not rely on you With retail sales worth £85 million in 2010, Maximuscle was sold
for everything, and to GlaxoSmithKline at the end of 2010 for £162 million, the biggest
accounts that are ever investment in the sports nutrition sector. Eisenberg has gone
100% kosher and on to set up Maxicorp, a Guernsey-based fund that invests in leisure
properly audited” and wellness businesses, and high end residential and commercial
property.

3. 155 Maximuscle and Maxicorp
The importance of doing things properly
From the first days of Maximuscle, founder Zef Eisenberg has
focused on premium and quality. Given the sometimes-murky
image of sports nutrition, this was vital if he wanted to bring it into
the mainstream. Therefore products were formulated on the best
ingredients, quantities and scientific research, rather than price.
“genuine business
All the company’s products are independently drug-screened using
people, not just
testing procedures that are ISO17025 compliant and approved
investors”
by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. Though this adds
a noticeable cost per unit to each product, it has been crucial to
the growth of the brand and Maximuscle’s 100% guarantee of
safety for elite athletes and sports clubs. It’s a valuable reminder
that in certain sectors, this type of accreditation can provide huge
marketing value, as Eisenberg himself proved.
In the late 1990s Maximuscle attracted less-than-positive media
attention when athletes who had tested positive for drugs tried to
point the finger at its products. Eisenberg was able to produce all
the necessary independent evidence that Maximuscle was not, in
fact, to blame, and he invited the media, trading standards and
UK sport to the firm’s headquarters to see for themselves and
test whichever products they wanted. Excellent press coverage
ensued, which helped bring Maximuscle out of its specialist sports
niche and into the mainstream.
The moral of the story? The investment in testing and building
scientific credibility combined with Eisenberg’s ability to handle
the media and hold his nerve created a huge sales boost from a
situation that could have destroyed the company. However, that
type of high-wire calmness is only effective if everything is 100%
bona fide and the testing is credible.
Around 2002, Eisenberg felt he was spending too much time
on managerial tasks that he didn’t enjoy, and not enough on the
research and science, and so decided it was time to take the
business to the next level, by bringing in professional management
and the next calibre of staff to attract private equity investment.
With sound evidence of sales growth already in place, Eisenberg’s
task was to put in place a strong management team. This had the

4. Maximuscle and Maxicorp 156
additional benefit of freeing him from the day-to-day tasks that were
using up too much of his time and energy: “Knowing when to seek
help is a sign of a good entrepreneur”. So, the following year, he
recruited a new non-executive chairman and managing director,
and together they began the search for a private equity backer that
would finance a buy-in management buy-out (or BIMBO).
The process of finding a private equity deal took several months
and was slightly bumpy at times. But it taught Eisenberg valuable
lessons about finding the right investor. When looking for a private
equity deal, he warns, do not just opt for the highest bidder. He
says Piper Private Equity, with whom he did a £10 million deal in
2004, stood out because they were “genuine business people,
not just investors”. He recommends that business owners look for
a partner who can bring something to the table: in Piper’s case,
it was their own experience of building businesses and brands
and achieving organic growth. This expertise helped Maximuscle
increase its sales threefold over the next three years.
For any business looking for a committed venture capital partner,
Eisenberg emphasises the importance of having sound accounts
and figures in place. From his new position on the other side of the
pitch, at Maxicorp, he has complained that too many approaches
from entrepreneurs contain unrealistic projections and accounts
that don’t stand up to scrutiny. Once you dig into the pitch and ask
questions, the projections often fail to stand up to scrutiny. “You get
a lot of salesmanship, everyone ends up wasting time and you lose
trust,” he says.
“You get a lot of
salesmanship, He warns, though, that attracting a successful exit can take years
everyone ends up to execute while you put in place a management team and build up
wasting time and you several years of audited accounts. You need to “make sure you have
lose trust” at least three years of increasing sales, an effective management
team, a business that does not rely on you for everything, and
accounts that are 100% kosher and properly audited,” he told This
is Money.
Controlling the pace of growth
The step-by-step success of Eisenberg’s development of
Maximuscle, and then his gradual exit, shows an immense talent

5. 157 Maximuscle and Maxicorp
at planning, strategy and timing. It also shows that a successful
growth strategy demands an ability to balance pushing ahead with
holding back. Eisenberg points out that with a non-physical internet
business, you can grow far more quickly, as you invest in hosting
space, programming and computing power, but with a product
company such as Maximuscle, growth has to be managed more
carefully. As you grow, it’s essential to maintain service levels, to “The risk is overtrading
manage stock and cash flow, to sustain your ability to meet orders, and being too
and to ensure your future supply chain and quality controls. This ambitious. It’s much
applies equally in tough economic times like the present decade, better to grow
and in easier ones. “The risk is overtrading and being too ambitious. carefully and slowly”
It’s much better to grow carefully and slowly.”
In other words, the key to successful growth in any decade is not
the pursuit of growth itself, but the pursuit of managed growth.
www.maximuscle.com