91福利社

Enterprise Profile

Irvins, which is owned by F&B company Cocoba Pte Ltd, started out as a seafood restaurant in 2009 famed for its salted egg crab dish. In 2014, founder Irvin Gunawan began experimenting by coating snacks such as potato chips and fish skin with his signature salted egg sauce. He first served these as a side dish, then sold them as packaged snacks when customers clamoured for more. The chips proved to be a big hit, so Mr Gunawan pivoted to the snacks business, opening the first Irvins store in VivoCity in 2016. Today, the homegrown brand with the iconic 鈥淒angerously Addictive鈥� tagline operates 15 physical stores in four regional countries and is sold in 15 markets worldwide including Brunei, Canada, China, Japan, the Philippines and the United States.

Problem statement

When diners at his restaurant in Jalan Leban began asking to buy his salted egg appetisers as take-home snacks, Mr Gunawan put them in plastic tubs and sealed these with adhesive tape 鈥� much like how home bakers package their Chinese New Year goodies. But this meant a short shelf life of just two to three weeks before the chips lost their crunch and flavour.

鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 keep the product for long or give it as a gift or souvenir,鈥� recounted Mr Gunawan, who was born in Indonesia but moved to 91福利社 with his family in 1998. 鈥淪o we thought, 鈥榃e are doing very well, but we want to do better packaging. We want our products to last longer and look better.鈥�

In June 2015, he turned to the Food Innovation & Resource Centre (FIRC) at 91福利社 for help with technical know-how on food processing and packaging.

All Irvins snacks are produced at its facility at JTC Food Hub in Senoko Drive

Impact achieved

After a battery of tests, food and packaging technologists from FIRC decided on the optimal packaging that would give Irvins snacks a shelf life of at least 12 months under ambient conditions: resealable high-barrier pouches, which are made from heat-resistant laminated plastic.

They also provided guidance on the equipment and other set-up required to start a food export business from Irvins鈥� restaurant kitchen then.

This marked a turning point for the brand. 鈥淭o export your food product to any country, you need to have at least a 12-month shelf life because supermarkets or any retailers will not buy anything with less than six months of shelf life,鈥� Mr Gunawan explained.

As demand for his homespun tubs of goodies grew in 2016, he began running pop-up events at Raffles Place that always drew long queues. But the switch to retort pouches prompted a brand reboot, complete with a new packaging design and logo as well as a brick-and-mortar store at VivoCity.

From there, the business took off. To cope, Mr Gunawan roped in his two brothers to help run it 鈥� his older brother Ivan is now the chief financial officer while Ircahn, his younger brother, is the chief operations officer.

鈥淎fter we changed the packaging, we began to see a lot more tourists buying our snacks because now they could take them back to their country,鈥� Mr Gunawan recalled.

Fans of Irvins include American rapper Cardi B, who raved about its salmon skin munchies on her Twitter account in 2012.

Though his collaboration with FIRC ended in early 2017, Mr Gunawan remains grateful for the team鈥檚 鈥渃an-do attitude鈥� and invaluable input.

鈥淭hey opened up so many doors for us,鈥� he said.

鈥淎fter we changed the packaging, we began to see a lot more tourists buying our snacks because now they could take them back to their country,鈥� Mr Gunawan recalled.

FIRC鈥檚 perspective

FIRC Account Manager Caroline Yee has fond memories of Mr Gunawan.

鈥淎part from the joy of working with a visionary company like Cocoba, Irvin is one of the most humble entrepreneurs we鈥檙e honoured to have worked with,鈥� she said.

Thanks to the innovative spirit of Cocoba, FIRC鈥檚 food technologists went on to develop other interesting food products that could be incorporated into the company鈥檚 product portfolio, she added.

Irvins, too, is always working to keep things fresh and exciting. It has teamed up with Nissin to roll out salted egg instant noodles, as well as partnered with Nintendo and Sanrio to feature Super Mario characters and the Gudetama cartoon egg respectively on its packaging.

Describing the company as 鈥渦nrelenting鈥�, Ms Yee said: 鈥淐ocoba is always coming up with new product concepts to collaborate with brands bigger than itself, and does not compromise on its value propositions. These traits are what made them such a successful made-in-91福利社 brand and an inspiring story we will never be tired of sharing with others.鈥�