A deluge of online sales from Lithgow residents has attracted Orange-based business owner Nathan Swan to open another of his supplement businesses in Lithgow's Main Street.

Mr Swan owns Iron Ambitions in Orange and originally had no plans of opening a business in Lithgow, until he had to start selling products online due to COVID-19 and saw that most of his sales were happening in Lithgow.

So after some consideration, he saw that there was a shop space available around the corner from Anytime Fitness and he was set.

"I used to work in a supplement store in Orange but it closed, and it was the only thing I really liked doing at the time as I was working four jobs," Mr Swan said.

So one day Mr Swan walked past a vacant store in the shopping centre and thought 'I'll give this a go'.

After learning from his previous boss about products and training over the years, Mr Swan found himself equipped with the knowledge to help others about supplement products.

"I broke my collarbone when I was playing footy when I was like 15 and I had to build that strength back up and started going to the gym for that. And then I didn't go back to footy and just kept going to the gym," he said.

Since starting in Lithgow on November 1, Mr Swan has already seen sales boom.

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"So I actually anticipated and planned for half the amount of sales that have already been done, so it really doubled my expectations," he said.

Mr Swan said the only way that COVID has really impacted his new business would be waiting on shelving and fridges to turn up.

"The only thing COVID did was most of my supplies are from Melbourne, so instead of taking two days to get to my store, some stuff has taken, like two weeks.

"So that was hard for sales and stuff in Orange but I mean, local people are pretty, loyal to their local guys and stuff, which is good."

Mr Swan is at the Lithgow store two days a week but has two other employees who run the shop when he is away.

Mr Swan said while gym goers are the majority of the market, the supplement industry has changed in the last couple of years.

"I have a lot of older people that come in that need protein in their diet as they get older which prevents a lot of muscle wasting and stuff," he said.

Majority of Mr Swans customers in Orange are mothers doing their own local fitness regimes at home and just want to add supplements to it, so he was excited to see what the Lithgow clientele will look like.

Currently Mr Swan is stocking the basics, such as greens, beauty formulas designed to improve hormones that correlate to skin and hair health as well as the usual stuff that helps people gain muscle and have more energy.

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As for why people should choose to shop at Lithgow's Iron Ambitions, Mr Swan said it is always handy to speak to someone who is knowledgeable on the topic.

"It's good to have a place where you can come and actually get knowledge on products that you didn't know about," he said.

"When I first opened here, I had a lot of girls messaged me asking if I have a certain product because that's what they were buying online and they'd seen it on Instagram as it was really well marketed online.

"But when they came in and had a chat, and I told them how pretty rubbish, the product actually was, they got better products and I've had messages since saying like, 'Oh, thanks. This one's way better kind of thing'."

Mr Swan said he didn't like stocking 'crap' products.

"I'll never have a crap product on the shelf kind of thing, even if it's really popular and if everyone's asking for it, I still won't stock it," he said.

Mr Swan said when he first started he didn't know what he was doing and fell into the traps of buying bad products.

"I know how expensive fitness can be in terms of like diet, gym memberships, and all the rest of it so I want to help customers see they need one good product and not seven bad ones," he said.

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"I mean, like, I'd rather have a customer that can trust me and comes back every time to get that one product then make a seven product sale and they go well, this was useless."

Such is his dedication to stocking good products, Mr Swan makes sure he has tested and tried every product before stocking it.

"Even the ladies beauty formula stuff, I've got like hair formulas that I've used for months on end just to see if they work properly," he said.

"As I said this was the only thing I liked doing when working four jobs so it really is a passion of mine."