Private company

Koh-Kae

Thai brand of nut snacks

Koh-Kae is a Thai brand of nut snacks manufactured by Mae-Ruay Snack Food Factory Co. Ltd. starting in 1976. Their original product was coconut cream coated peanuts, but other flavors such as tom-yum and chicken flavor were created later. By 2000, Mae-Ruay Snack Food Factory Co. Ltd. was awarded ISO 9001 certification by BVQI Institute, followed by the GMP and HACCP system certification by BVQI in 2002.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1976Founded1

Koh-Kae is a Thai brand of nut snacks manufactured by Mae-Ruay Snack Food Factory Co. Ltd. starting in 1976. Their original product was coconut cream coated peanuts, but other flavors such as tom-yum and chicken flavor were created later. By 2000, Mae-Ruay Snack Food Factory Co. Ltd. was awarded ISO 9001 certification by BVQI Institute, followed by the GMP and HACCP system certification by BVQI in 2002. In 2019, Koh-Kae held 50% of Thailand nut snacks market share.2

The story

Maeruay Snack Food Factory was founded in 1964 by Chookiat Ruayjaroensap and Jiraporn Ruayjaroensap as a manufacturer of roasted nut and shrimp crackers. The company was located at Ekachai Road, Bang Khun Thian.

In 1976, the company established "Koh-Kae", the coated peanut coconut flavor, and it became a popular snack. In 1977, the company expanded to support the customer demand. Now, the company is located at Rama 2 Road, with 12 Acres of area.

Mhookiat Ruayjaroensap created the name "Koh-Kae", meaning "a wild, cool man", to match the mascot character he had envisioned for the brand. He did this to be different from the other snacks at that time, which would normally name themselves after flavors or desserts. He had the idea for the character after seeing a postcard from Japan featuring a wild haired man, and the clothing that the mascot wears in the logo is a judo uniform, in reference to this Japanese origin.

Koh-Kae remains the best-selling product line of the company, with more than 80% of their total sales being from Koh-Kae, and 30% being from the original coconut coated nuts specifically.

The original CEO's son started to manage the company in 2000, and met an important turning point in the business by increasing sales from 600 million to 2,600 million baht.

From Wikipedia’s article on Koh-Kae, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Products & Flavors

There are many Koh-Kae flavors available. There are also many products other than coated peanuts such as roasted peanuts, green peas, broad beans, and mung beans.

Coated Peanuts products as at 2023 came in 12 Flavors

Source:

Coconut cream

Chicken

Read the full text

Coffee

Shrimp

Nori-Wasabi

Tom Yum

Barbeque

Ovaltine

Sweet Chili sauce

Mala BBQ

Mala Spicy hot pot

Durian

Peanuts products as at 2023 came in 8 varieties

Source:

Salted peanuts

Roasted peanuts

Honey peanuts

Chili & Salt peanuts

Thai Spicy peanuts

Salted Red skin peanuts

Salted Groundnuts

Peanut Crackers

Koh Kae Max as at 2023 came in 4 flavors

Source:

Koh-Kae max Squid

Koh-Kae max Cheese

Koh-Kae max Wasabi & Japanese sauce

Koh-Kae max Texas Bar-B-Q

Koh Kae green peas come in 5 Flavors

Source:

Salted

Sriracha sauce

Shrimp

Wasabi

Sprinkle salt

Koh Kae Broad Beans come in 7 flavors

Source:

Seafood Curry

Shrimp flavor

Chili

Salted

Seaweed

Crab Roe

Spicy Chicken Wings

Koh Bean (Mung Beans) come in 5 Flavors

Source:

Koh-Kae Mixed nuts with salt

Salted

Wasabi Crab stick

Seaweed

Barbeque

Koh Kae plus as at 2023 have 7 products

Spurce:

Salted mixed nuts

Coconut cream flavor coated cashew nuts

Honey & Sesame Cashews

Salted almonds

Salted cashews

Thai spicy mixed nuts

Thai tom yum cashew nuts

Koh Kae plus protein snacks as at 2023 have 4 products

Source:

Roasted cashews

Roasted pistachios

Mixed nuts

Roasted almonds

Nut Natur as at 2023 has 4 products

Source:

Sea-salt almonds

Roasted almonds

Roasted pistachios

Roasted cashew nuts

Zico stick biscuit come in 3 flavors

Source:

Mixed flavor

Seaweed

Cochujang

Nelie Crackers has 4 flavors

Source:

Classic

Seaweed & Japanese sauce

Sour cream & Onion

Cheese

There is one chocolate product

Koh-Kae Choco ball (chocolate coated peanuts)

Other Snacks include

Source:

Wanz

Fonto milk flavor corn snacks

Tama fruit flavor jelly drinks which come in 4 flavors Orange, Strawberry, Grape and Lychee

MR corn snacks

Seleco seaweed snacks

Other type of product which are merchandise included

Source:

T-shirt

Figure

Bag

Other merchandise included Clocks, Water bottle, Koh-Glassy Umbrella and Koh-Kae multi-purpose box.

Marketing

Koh-Kae is the leader of Thailand’s market of nut snack which has 4,000-5,000 million baht of growth worth. Koh-Kae has about 50% or more of the total sales of the nut snacks market, 40% of total sales come from coated nuts, 25% are naked nuts, and 35% are premium nuts such as almond, pistachio and cashew nuts.

Nut snacks market is 13% of total snacks market which has a total value of more than 35,000 million baht, potato is still the biggest part of the market at 35% followed up by extruded snacks at 30% and nut snacks at 13%, and others (such as fish snack, seaweed, popcorn).

In 2009, they made a campaign called ‘โดดงับ รับล้าน’ which help boost up their market growth and in 2019 they have Thai celebrity, เป๊ก ผลิตโชค, as their presenter for their Koh Kae green peas products branch as well as new commercial and advertisement which expected to boost up their growth again.

Marketing in other countries

At present, the company exports to over 70 countries worldwide, with 20% of the revenue coming from exports, and the remaining 80% from domestic sales.

From Wikipedia’s article on Koh-Kae, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1976Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3