Salted-egg-yolk chips? The entrepreneurs behind a very Asian snack
The Golden Duck’s Singaporean founders, Christopher Hwang and Jonathan Shen, have brought their gourmet potato and fish-skin snacks to Hong Kong
What did you do before starting the Golden Duck? Christopher Hwang: “We have each done five businesses so far. Some of them have been together, some independently. When we first met, five years ago, I was doing a business in education, and John [Jonathan Shen] in events and marketing. They were very different industries, but we said, ‘I really like the way you deal with your partners, your business ethics,’ so we felt we should try to do something together. Fast-forward three years, and we did. We did ventures in media, in bars and, eventually, we founded The Golden Duck. And that’s the one that took off.”
What has the experience been like? Hwang: “It has been a crazy roller-coaster ride. You have huge highs and huge lows. We started with a small kitchen in Singapore and now we run two factories. But it also causes a lot of pressure and responsibility. When you realise you have 50 people on your payroll, you need to make sure you do the right thing.”
So, where did the idea of salted-egg-yolk snacks come from? Hwang: “John was the one who said, ‘Hey man, you know salted egg is such a popular flavour, particularly in Asia. Why is nobody doing it on a snack?’ I said, ‘It sounds good, let’s try it.’ So we sat down with a friend and came up with a recipe for the chips. I had a huge bowl of chips in front of me; within five minutes, that bowl was gone. And I said, ‘How are we going to do this? Let’s start, let’s plan.’ From that point, it was six tiring months of [research and development] before we got anything out in the market.”
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced? Jonathan Shen: “The main issue is scaling our production while maintaining quality. If you try to go too fast, your quality might drop. At the end of the day we are selling snacks, we have to maintain the quality that people pay for. Chris is in charge of our production and supply chain, so he is the one who is under a lot of stress now, trying to increase our supply to meet demand.