Family food empire built on love and ‘giving a duck’
Daniel Shoppee is the third generation of his family to preside over Australia’s largest duck producer and throughout the good and bad times there has been one important motto: ‘Don’t quit’.
The last moments Daniel Shoppee spent with his legendary grandfather are burned into his mind and heart as though it were yesterday.
In early June 2009, Arthur “Art” Shoppee suffered a stroke at his home in the Melbourne Bayside suburb of Albert Park.
He was there with his third wife, Dawn, who he had been with for 25 years but married just four weeks earlier at the century-old Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in nearby Middle Park.
He was 71 but Art Shoppee had lived life to the full, founding Australia’s top producer of premium duck products, Luv-a-Duck.
He began with 20 ducks in his backyard near the town of Nhill in Victoria’s Wimmera region in 1968 and, over the next 40 years, the company grew to become a vertically integrated agribusiness producing more than 105,000 ducks each week.
“Although his mind was incredibly sharp to the end, he had a number of physical ailments, a number of cancers,” Daniel recalls of the final days of the special man he affectionately called “Pa”.
“Unfortunately the Shoppee males tend to succumb to strokes. He had one at his house; he knew he was having one. He got transferred to The Alfred hospital.
“There was a wonderful team there and they were able to stabilise him.”
For a time the hospital staff would regularly drain Art’s brain of a life-threatening fluid build-up. But soon the doctors explained the brutal reality of his condition to his daughters – Daniel’s mother Kim Shoppee-Lynch and her sister, Theresa Sfetkidis.
“Pa was all about pre-planning. He made it clear that if he couldn’t communicate or express himself, then that was time,” Daniel says of what was a “very, very difficult time” in his life.
“He didn’t want to go through that. His own father had also suffered a stroke and couldn’t communicate. Pa didn’t want to go down that path.”
I ask what were his last words to his grandfather as the family said its final goodbyes before Art’s passing on June 18, 2009. There is a long, poignant pause before he replies.
“I won’t go right into the details. It was just he and I in the hospital room,” he eventually says slowly and softly.
“But I just told him I was going to make him proud.”
Shoppee-Lynch and Sfetkidis took over the running of the business after the death of their father, and later handed the reins to Daniel, the first third-generation member of the family to lead the company.
During Daniel’s time managing the hatcheries at Nhill, he worked alongside staff who used to babysit his mother when she was a child.
His appointment underscores Luv-a-Duck’s commitment to family values, premium quality Australian food and agriculture, and regional heritage.
The business is now Australia’s largest producer of duck, supplying from whole ducks to pre-prepared meals, and other duck-based products, and employing almost 300 staff across sites at Nhill, Ballarat and Port Melbourne.
Daniel’s ascension is one of four recent leadership appointments, marking a new era for the business after it launched a provocative advertising campaign inspiring home cooks to “give a duck about dinner”.
Daniel never knew his biological father, who left the family fold before he was born. He was raised by his mother and later his stepfather. But most importantly, by his Pa.
He recalls the most important lessons from the latter.
“One of the statements he always made was ‘If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well’. And ‘Make sure you get your facts straight before you make a decision’. Growing up it was just mum and I, so Pa was a father figure for me.
“He was one for getting the world duck community together. He would always say ‘We are not competing with each other, we should talk together.’ He would rock up on the doorstep of duck businesses in the UK and talk to them. Those relationships still go till this day,” he says.
“Pa was a very intelligent man, one of those who could work out figures in his head quickly.
“He was the family leader. He wanted to bring people along on the ride.
“He got a bunch of contract farmers around Nhill and brought them along with us. His motto was always ‘Every one comes to the table and wins together’.”
France to regional Australia
The Shoppee family immigrated from France to Ballarat in regional Victoria in the middle of the 19th century to join the gold rush.
But the family’s wealth grew from precious china and crystal – firstly from Art’s great-grandfather Charles – who was the mayor of Ballarat for 10 years and ran a retail china shop there – and later his son Arthur, Art’s grandfather.
The latter opened a china and crystal department on the second floor of the Myer store in Melbourne; and his son, Art’s father – also called Arthur – became his buyer.
The family moved to the Wimmera district when Art’s father bought a hotel in the town of Dimboola and then a dry-cleaning business with a factory in Nhill.
Art, an accountant by training, moved to Nhill to manage the business and became a member of the local Apex Club, which ran annual duck-shooting expeditions to the Murray River and this sparked his interest in ducks.
He eventually started buying ducklings, grew them and provided fresh duck meat to his father, who by then was running a restaurant in Adelaide.
There were times over the next four decades that Art contemplated quitting, especially after fire devastated the Nhill factory and hatchery.
But he always lived his life by the principles of a poem given to him by his father titled “Don’t Quit”, written by the American poet Edgar A Guest in the 1920s.
A framed copy of the poem today sits on Daniel Shoppee’s desk at the Luv-a-Duck head office in Port Melbourne.
The poem came to the fore again last year, following the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Luv-a-Duck had to cut more than 60 jobs after over 70 per cent of its food service market disappeared when Melbourne went into lockdown.
Within two years those stood down had been hired back. But by then Art Shoppee’s daughters had decided they’d had enough of being in business alone. Or potentially, even at all.
After more than a decade on their own without the guidance of their father and having built Luv-a-Duck’s annual turnover to more than $95m, they were exhausted.
“It was a challenging period for us. There were many family businesses going up for sale and we looked at taking on a strategic investor or making an outright sale. It got fairly close,” Daniel says.
“But eventually they took a step back, had a breather and the “Don’t Quit” poem came up again.
In 2023 they decided “this is a family business, it is what we always wanted and it is going to stay with us”.
Former Asahi Beverages Group chief executive Robert Iervasi joined Luv-a-Duck as chairman late last year and brought with him a plan to make duck meat a mainstream choice for Australians.
“It’s an exciting time for Luv-a-Duck as we enter a bold new chapter, and there is a tremendous opportunity to show Aussie cooks what is possible with duck,” Iervasi says.
“We’ve brought together a brilliant team who are incredibly passionate about showing the versatility, affordability and deliciousness of our duck products.”
In addition to a new chief executive and independent chairman, Luv-a-Duck has appointed three new senior leaders: Sarah Sorenson (formerly Bondi Sands, Schweppes Australia and Asahi) as chief financial officer; Cath Fifoot (formerly Lamb Weston and Bega Cheese) as head of sales; and Tim Stanford (formerly Nando’s and Darryl Lea) as head of marketing.
Daniel Shoppee is keen to add another two independent non-executive directors with skill sets that will benefit the business.
“Robert brings a lot of professionalism and a lot of structure, which has been hugely beneficial,” he says of Iervasi.
“He is also a very approachable person, easy to get along with and knowledgeable.”
Strengthening the team
Under the new leadership team, Luv-a-Duck intends to strengthen its position as the top duck producer in Australia committed to the highest quality and standards of biosecurity.
“As grocery bills skyrocket, it’s easy to think you need to compromise on flavour when planning your meals,” Daniel says.
“Because we manage our entire production from breeding to processing, we’ve been able to keep our costs low compared to other higher end proteins. It allows us to help Aussie home cooks make mealtime exciting with high-quality, delicious and affordable duck products.”
Luv-a-Duck exports to the Middle East, Pacific islands, Singapore and the Philippines, and is looking to leverage the international market more in the coming financial year.
All of the feathers retrieved from duck carcasses are currently sold abroad.
“Pa used to say we can sell everything but the quack,” Daniel jokes, noting that while his grandfather once considered diversifying into other bird meat such as quail and pheasant, “ducks are now our only game”.
His now 60-year-old mother and 62-year-old aunt retain equal ownership of Luv-a-Duck between them. The latter has three children who are not involved in the business.
While Daniel jokes that he could “claim long-service leave since the age of two” as he was essentially born into working for the business, it will be a while before his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Noah, and four-month-old Jack follow in his footsteps.
“I have worked in every aspect of it, down to shovelling shit on farms which was one of my first jobs. To be able to lead this business and see the growth moving forward is significant,” he says.
“The family legacy piece is pretty important to me. There are a lot of people in this business who have been here for multiple generations.”
He says being a family business means Luv-a-Duck and the Shoppees will always look to the long term.
“We talk in generations and decades. We focus on long-term growth and quality. That is what our commitment is to our people and our customers,” he says.
“As Pa long said, ‘If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well’.”
In Art Shoppee’s death notice published in the Herald Sun newspaper on July 20, 2009, he left behind a message for his loved ones. The family patriarch might be gone, but he will never be forgotten.
“I know you’re going to miss me and your hearts will surely ache, but ties will not be broken, and memories won’t break,” it read.
“Remember this is not the end. You still have one another. A hug and kiss as time goes by will bond your hearts together. Stay strong in the Lord and we’ll be together again – a family we are, and always will be.”
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