The exact founding year varies somewhat across IRVINS’ own materials: its FAQ traces the salted-egg snacks to Irvins Live Seafood Restaurant in 2008, while its official timeline identifies 2009 as the year Irvin opened his first restaurant in Singapore. 1

Origins: the restaurant

IRVINS began not as a snack company, but as a seafood restaurant founded by Irvin Gunawan in Singapore. The restaurant became particularly associated with its salted egg crab, which used a rich salted-egg sauce.

The salted egg sauce proved extremely popular with customers. Gunawan and his team eventually began experimenting with ways to transform the restaurant’s signature flavour into a packaged snack.

The breakthrough — 2014

Around 2014, Gunawan experimented with coating snacks such as potato chips and fish skin with his signature salted egg sauce. What began as experimentation eventually became the foundation of the IRVINS brand.

Rather than simply selling conventional flavoured chips, IRVINS developed a process centred on real salted egg yolk and other ingredients such as curry leaves and chilli.

The response was strong enough that the company shifted its focus away from the restaurant business and toward packaged snacks.

Retail expansion — 2016

The salted egg snacks became an immediate hit in Singapore. In 2016, IRVINS opened its first physical retail store at VivoCity, marking an important transition from restaurant-originated product to standalone consumer brand.

The brand became particularly recognizable for its distinctive packaging and its “Dangerously Addictive” positioning.

Going international — 2017 onward

From 2017, IRVINS began expanding outside Singapore. Its international footprint eventually included markets such as China, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brunei and the Philippines. Singapore Polytechnic reports that the brand operates in 15 markets worldwide, while the Singapore IP Office similarly describes IRVINS as operating in 15 markets.

The company also expanded distribution through supermarkets, convenience stores and other retail channels, rather than relying solely on its own stores.

Irvin Gunawan is the founder and CEO of IRVINS.

His entrepreneurial background was originally in the restaurant and seafood business. The eventual success of the salted egg snacks came from recognizing that customers were interested in taking the restaurant’s signature flavour home with them.

The business subsequently became a family enterprise. IRVINS says Gunawan’s two brothers joined him, with the three Gunawan brothers running the brand. 2

Salted Egg Fish Skin

The Salted Egg Fish Skin is arguably IRVINS’ defining product.

It combines crispy fish skin with salted egg yolk, curry leaves and chilli. The company says it uses Pangasius dory fish skin for its fish-skin product.

The unusual combination helped distinguish IRVINS from conventional potato-chip brands and made fish skin itself part of the brand’s identity.

Salted Egg Potato Chips

The other major flagship is Salted Egg Potato Chips, which applies the same flavour profile to potato chips.

Together, fish skin and potato chips established IRVINS’ original product identity.

Salmon Skin

IRVINS later expanded into Salted Egg Salmon Skin, using what the company describes as upcycled salmon skin. The product allowed the brand to extend its signature flavour into another premium snack format.

Other products

Over time, the portfolio expanded beyond the original products, including:

• Salted Egg Fish Skin
• Salted Egg Potato Chips
• Salted Egg Salmon Skin
• Salted Egg Cassava Chips
• Salted Egg Seaweed Crisps
• Prawn-based snacks
• Other flavoured potato and seafood snacks
• Spicy “Hot Boom” versions

The brand has also experimented beyond snacks.

A major part of IRVINS’ positioning is its emphasis on real ingredients rather than simply applying artificial flavour powder.

The company says its salted egg flavour uses real duck egg yolks. Its stated process involves salt-brining duck eggs, steaming the yolks and incorporating them into its seasoning. It also highlights ingredients such as curry leaves and bird’s-eye chillies.

IRVINS describes its snacks as being hand-mixed and having the seasoning baked into the snack rather than merely sprayed onto the surface.

This production philosophy supports the brand’s premium positioning.

One of IRVINS’ strongest pieces of branding is its phrase:

#DangerouslyAddictive

The phrase turns the intensely savoury, salty and umami character of salted egg into a central part of the brand’s personality.

Instead of presenting itself simply as another packaged snack, IRVINS positions its products as an indulgent experience that is difficult to stop eating.

The Singapore IP Office describes “Dangerously Addictive” as part of the brand’s identity and notes that IRVINS has protected its distinctive branding and salted-egg flavour formula as intellectual property/trade secrets. 3

IRVINS’ stated product philosophy revolves around several ideas:

The company says its salted egg flavour uses real duck egg yolks. Its stated process involves salt-brining duck eggs, steaming the yolks and incorporating them into its seasoning. It also highlights ingredients such as curry leaves and bird’s-eye chillies.

• Real duck egg yolk
• Whole-food ingredients
• Curry leaves and chilli
• Chef-crafted recipes
• Small-batch production
• Strong savoury/umami flavour
• Crunchy textures
• Singaporean culinary inspiration

The company describes its salted egg yolks as being salt-brined for approximately 30 days before being processed for its products.

IRVINS has also used collaborations as part of its growth and marketing strategy.

Notable collaborations have included:

• Nissin — salted egg instant noodles
• Pokémon — limited-edition Pikachu-themed potato chips
• Cotton On — IRVINS-branded fashion
• Pezzo — salted egg/fish-skin-inspired pizza
• Minions — themed snack collaborations

The Nissin collaboration translated the IRVINS flavour into instant noodles, demonstrating how the brand could extend its intellectual property beyond traditional snack products. 4

One of the more interesting aspects of IRVINS’ growth is that salted egg was not equally familiar in every market.

Rather than treating this solely as a disadvantage, IRVINS has described its strategy as looking for markets where salted egg could represent a relatively new flavour proposition. The Singapore IP Office characterizes this as seeking “blue ocean” market spaces.

In the United States, for example, the company has distributed products through retailers including H Mart, Ranch 99, Weee! and Yamibuy.

This effectively transformed a flavour strongly associated with Asian cuisine into a globally marketed snack category.

Moving from a restaurant to an international packaged-food business required IRVINS to develop considerably more sophisticated production capabilities.

Singapore Polytechnic notes that new packaging technology helped extend the products’ shelf life, making international exports possible. It also highlights the acquisition of food-processing technical know-how as an important part of scaling the business.

This is an important part of the IRVINS story: the company’s success wasn’t simply the result of a popular recipe. It also required turning a restaurant-style product into something that could be manufactured, packaged, transported and sold internationally.

IRVINS’ identity can broadly be described as:

Singaporean + Asian culinary heritage + premium snack + bold flavour + playful branding.

Rather than adopting a traditional luxury-food image, the brand uses energetic language and unconventional combinations.

The contrast is intentional:

Premium ingredients
↓
Bold Asian flavour
↓
Fun packaging and collaborations
↓
“Dangerously Addictive” personality

This helped IRVINS appeal not only to Singaporean consumers but also to tourists and international consumers looking for distinctive Asian snacks.

IRVINS is often cited as an example of a Singaporean food business successfully transforming a local flavour into a global consumer product.

Its story is particularly notable because it began with an established local dish — salted egg crab — and transformed the flavour into an entirely different category.

The Singapore Tourism Board has featured IRVINS as a Singapore food souvenir, describing its salted egg snacks as a product associated with the country’s modern food culture.

The Singapore government’s Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has also highlighted IRVINS as a case study in using trademarks, trade secrets and brand development to expand internationally.

IRVINS is operated under Cocoba Pte Ltd, a Singapore company. Its listed Singapore address is at 421 Tagore Industrial Avenue, Tagore 8, #01-29, Singapore 787805.

• 2008 — IRVINS traces the origin of its salted-egg snacks to Irvins Live Seafood Restaurant. 5
• 2009 — Irvin Gunawan’s first Singapore restaurant appears on the company’s official timeline.
• 2014 — Experiments begin turning the restaurant’s salted egg sauce into snack products.
• 2016 — First IRVINS physical retail store opens at VivoCity.
• 2017 — International expansion accelerates.
• 2020 — Products expand into supermarkets and convenience stores internationally; the brand also launches a Pokémon collaboration.
• 2021 — IRVINS collaborates with Nissin on salted egg instant noodles.
• 2023–2025 — IRVINS is highlighted by Singapore government and industry organisations as a Singaporean brand with international reach.
• 2026 — IRVINS continues operating as a Singapore-based global snack brand, with its official site selling products in multiple markets.

1. Our Story
2. Irvins: Local snack brand goes global
3. The Top Questions We Get Asked About IRVINS
4. Dangerously Addictive Salted Egg Snacks
5. NISSIN IRVINS SALTED EGG