Antonius Auwyang: Building a Golden Bridge for Indonesian Products in Australia

SYDNEY - Tity Antonius Auwyang's entrepreneurial spirit remains undeterred despite a continental shift. Having established his business in Australia, Antonius has successfully attracted buyers for Indonesian goods.

Life often presents unexpected sharp turns. For Tity Antonius Auwyang, that turn came in the form of a phone call during the 1998 riots.

At the time, Antonius, a man known for his professional success, was on the fast track to success. Born in Jayapura, Papua, and spending his childhood and junior high school years there, Antonius then moved to Jakarta for high school and completed his Civil Engineering degree at Tarumanegara University, Jakarta.

Read Also: Australia-Indonesia Trade Enters New Phase, Soaring Threefold!

His career as a civil engineer was flourishing. He was involved in renowned projects, ranging from the development of New Parahyangan City, Pantai Indah Kapuk, to the design of the iconic Barelang Bridge in Batam. He was in his comfort zone, enjoying the fruits of his hard work and technical expertise. 

"The bridge is still intact to this day," he joked during an interview at his office on Bachell Avenue Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia, in mid-November 2025.

However, the May 1998 riots marked the prelude to a significant change in his life. A few months after the event, a phone call from his family requested him to fly to Sydney, Australia. His father was ill and needed care.

"One call changed my life," Antonius recalls. The call forced him to leave his brilliant career in Indonesia and start from scratch in the Land of Kangaroos. The call came from his father, who was ill in Australia at the time.

Read Also: Yogyakarta–Melbourne Connected: IndoTekno Revives the Pulse of Art Post-Pandemic

Steering Change

Arriving in Australia around August 1998, Antonius did not immediately plunge into the business world. He was visiting on a tourist visa, which lasted for about a year. When his visa expired, he had to return to Jakarta to obtain a new one.

At that time, he thought about staying longer and chose to continue his studies and obtain a student visa.

He utilized his academic background to pursue a Master's degree in Construction Management at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney.

After graduating from UNSW, the reality of the Australian job market hit him. Opportunities for an immigrant to immediately hold a strategic position in the construction field were limited. At this point, his survival instinct transformed into an entrepreneurial spirit.

Antonius made a bold decision. He turned down high-paying office job offers that came his way. His philosophy was simple yet striking, "If I work for others, they get rich. If I start my own business, I create value and wealth."

Thus, in 2004, Sony Trading Australia was born. Don't imagine a company with dozens of staff at its inception. Sony Trading was a one-man show driven by the principle of total efficiency.

Antonius was the director and the laborer. He negotiated imports, unloaded newly arrived containers at the port, set marketing strategies, and drove the box truck to distribute goods to Asian stores in Sydney. The sweat and hard work in the early years laid a strong foundation for his business in the future.

Antonius's perseverance gradually paid off. Trust is the most valuable currency in the distribution business. The first factory that saw Antonius's potential and seriousness was the Orang Tua Group. 

The success in distributing OT Group products in Australia opened the door for other major players. Munik, with its authentic spices, followed, and then the Mayora Group joined Sony Trading's portfolio.

Now, almost two decades later, Sony Trading Australia has grown into a key player in the supply chain of Indonesian products in Australia. 

Read Also: Australia and Indonesia Announce New Security Treaty

Its import volume reaches about 500 containers per year—or 1,000 containers every two years. When asked about the size of his current business turnover, Antonius chose to be modest, "Just about two digits," he said, smiling when mentioned it was close to reaching three digits. 

His company represents more than 30 reputable factories in Indonesia. No less than 1,000 varieties of Indonesian products (SKU)—ranging from soy sauce, cereal, instant coffee, to cooking spices—are distributed by Antonius throughout Australia.

The reach of Antonius's distribution business has expanded, from Sydney to Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Darwin, to Perth. Not only that, Sony Trading has also penetrated the New Zealand market and Pacific countries like New Caledonia. It can be said that 99% of the goods he imports come from Indonesia.

What's Antonius's secret to penetrating the tight Australian retail market? "My mindset is not that of a trader, but an entrepreneur," he asserts. He says, business is not just about selling one dollar per piece, but creating value.

As an entrepreneur, Antonius does not just move goods from point A to point B. He positions himself as a strategic partner for factories in Indonesia. He is aware that the Australian market has very high standards and strict regulations.

This is where Antonius's expertise comes into play. He knows the Australian regulatory ecosystem by heart, from FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) food safety standards, DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) quarantine and biosecurity, NMI (National Measurement Institute) measurements, to ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) business competition.

Antonius ensures that every product he brings meets these standards. He does not hesitate to help factories reformulate products. For example, replacing certain food coloring substances not allowed in Australia, or redesigning packaging to comply with local labeling regulations.

His business vision is summarized in the 3A philosophy: Accessible, Affordable, and Accountable.

Accessible means that the Indonesian products he brings must be easily found by consumers. Affordable means the price must be reasonable, which Antonius achieves by reducing the cost of inter-state logistics, notoriously expensive in Australia. And accountable, ensuring every product is legal and regulation-compliant.

Innovation, a Change of Clothes 

Antonius's creativity is also evident in his ability to localize products. He understands the taste and preferences of mainstream Australian (Caucasian) market.

A successful example is cassava chips. If offered merely as "cassava chips," it might be ordinary, and its market would be limited to Asian stores only. Antonius thought outside the box. He rebranded and repackaged the product as Wasabi Cassava. 

With more modern packaging and flavor, this product successfully made its way onto the shelves of Woolworths, one of the largest supermarket chains in Australia today.

Another example is sweet potato chips. Knowing that Australian consumers prefer light and savory flavors over sweet, Antonius developed a garlic and rosemary flavor variant. It's this kind of adaptation strategy that elevates Indonesian products from ethnic grocery stores to modern retail markets.

Another significant momentum came during the pandemic in 2020. Lockdown and work-from-home policies triggered a surge in demand for instant cooking spices, as people started cooking at home again. Ready-to-use spice products developed and distributed by Sony Trading also saw increased demand, in line with this change in consumer behavior.

Antonius acknowledges this surge in demand for instant spices as a game changer in his business. The cultural shift from people who used to enjoy ready-made food to cooking at home to meet family nutrition needs naturally boosted Sony Trading's sales.

Continuing to innovate, Antonius is now preparing a new breakthrough: bringing tempeh to the mainstream Australian market. For him, tempeh is not just traditional food, but a "gold" of nutrition that has not been fully tapped in the global market.

Read Also: Australia Ready to Invest AU$ 2 Billion in Southeast Asia Infrastructure

"Australia is very concerned about nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. Tempeh is a superfood," says an optimistic Antonius. He plans to market tempeh both in frozen form and ready-to-eat products like tempeh chips, targeting the rapidly growing vegan and health-conscious market segments there. According to Antonius's calculations, these tempeh-based products will be introduced next year in the Land of Kangaroos.

For his long-standing efforts in promoting and elevating the status of Indonesian products in the Land of Kangaroos, Antonius was awarded the Primaduta Award in 2021 by the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia. This award is given to foreign importers who are loyal and high-performing in purchasing Indonesian products. The award certificate and a photo of the official presenting the award hang neatly in Antonius's office corner.

For Antonius, the journey from a civil engineer designing concrete bridges to a businessman building "trade bridges" between countries is a source of pride. His mission now goes beyond profit; he wants to prove that Indonesian products—if managed with the right strategy and high standard compliance—are very capable of competing head-to-head with products from China, Korea, or Japan in the international market.

Concluding the conversation, Antonius shares a business analogy, "If we chase pizza, we compete with others so that the portion we receive is small or little. But if we create pizza, others will follow us." 

And that's what Antonius continues to do in Australia: creating a "new pizza" from the richness of Nusantara culinary and food products.