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 – 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.
“You couldn’t keep the product for long or give it as a gift or souvenir,” recounted Mr Gunawan, who was born in Indonesia but moved to Singapore with his family in 1998. “So we thought, ‘We are doing very well, but we want to do better packaging. We want our products to last longer and look better.”
In June 2015, he turned to the Food Innovation & Resource Centre (FIRC) at Singapore Polytechnic for help with technical know-how on food processing and packaging.
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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’ restaurant kitchen then.
This marked a turning point for the brand. “To 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,” 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 – his older brother Ivan is now the chief financial officer while Ircahn, his younger brother, is the chief operations officer.
“After 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,” 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’s “can-do attitude” and invaluable input.
“They opened up so many doors for us,” he said.
“After 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,” Mr Gunawan recalled.
FIRC’s perspective
FIRC Account Manager Caroline Yee has fond memories of Mr Gunawan.
“Apart from the joy of working with a visionary company like Cocoba, Irvin is one of the most humble entrepreneurs we’re honoured to have worked with,” she said.
Thanks to the innovative spirit of Cocoba, FIRC’s food technologists went on to develop other interesting food products that could be incorporated into the company’s 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 “unrelenting”, Ms Yee said: “Cocoba 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-Singapore brand and an inspiring story we will never be tired of sharing with others.”