The Golden Duck Co. Delivers a Snack Upgrade Australia Didn't Know It Needed

When Jonathan Shen and Chris Hwang first started experimenting with handmade snacks out of a tiny DIY pop-up booth in Singapore, they never imagined one of their biggest wins would come years later, in the form of a nationwide rollout in Australia across 650 Woolworths and Metro stores.

When The Golden Duck Co. pitched their new canister snack range to Woolworths in January 2024, they were expecting a modest launch. "Honestly, we just hoped to get into about 100 stores to test it out," says co-founder and CEO Jonathan Shen. "But Woolworths liked the range so much, they decided to put it in nearly 700 stores."

The Golden Duck Co., known for its bold, Asian-inspired snack flavours like Salted Egg Yolk Chilli Crab Seaweed, Tom Yum Goong, and Spicy Mala Hot Pot, is currently sold in almost 20 countries. While Singapore remains the company's home base and strong focus, Australia has quickly become a close second, with the team putting serious effort behind the Australian rollout, with the full range of products also being sold in selected Asian grocery stores nationwide. Other key markets in the pipeline include China, as well as upcoming expansions into Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK.

The new canister range features four bold and distinct flavours. The Spiced Potato Crisp range includes four distinctive flavours: Truffle Wagyu, Sour Cream & Sriracha, Kombu Seaweed Butter, and Himalayan Pink Salt. Each crisp is gluten-free, non-GMO, preservative-free, and vegetarian-friendly, even the Wagyu variant—with some flavours containing dairy.

The nationwide Woolworths rollout is a major milestone, but for Shen, it's also deeply personal. Long before he was building a global snack brand, managing a growing team, and launching products across continents, he had his sights set on a very different path—one that involved a more traditional route through university and a stable career. But as life would have it, that path shifted to an entirely new direction.

At age 19, he was full of ideas, a little reckless, and always chasing the unconventional life. "Back in 2009, I got accepted into a university in Melbourne and on the first day I just never showed up because I had just started my first business," Shen recalls. "Fast forward to today, 15 years later, all my products are all over Australia, so it's kind of like a full circle moment."

A lot of Shen's leadership style today is shaped by the values he learned from his mum, a single mother who juggled multiple jobs to support three kids. Shen grew up seeing resilience in action. "She didn't have it easy and had to juggle multiple jobs just to raise the three of us on her own. But no matter how tough things got, she always stayed kind, grounded, and just kept going," he says. That mix of grit and empathy has become core to how he builds his team and runs The Golden Duck Co.

Australia, being one of their biggest markets, feels like a natural fit. Shen first visited back in 2009 while applying for universities, and over the years, he's watched the country's culture and food scene explode dramatically.

He also recalls, "I was at the Asian Heritage Week launch event in Melbourne in March, and it was amazing to see how many people already knew about The Golden Duck Co. and genuinely loved our brand."

That kind of connection is exactly what drives the brand forward. For Jonathan Shen, the goal is simple and straightforward: "Whether it's our bold flavours, loud packaging, or the way we tell stories, we always try to punch above our weight. Our snacks aren't just tasty. They're crafted with pride, with a chip on the shoulder, and a desire to stand out."