Koh-Kae

Koh-Kae is a Thai brand of nut snacks manufacturing by Mae-Ruay Snack Food Factory Co., Ltd. and was first sold in 1976. In its early days, Koh-Kae only came in their original flavor, which is coconut cream coated peanuts, but they developed others flavor such as tom-yum and chicken flavor later on. 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.^[1] In year 2019 Koh-Kae holds 50% of Thailand nut snacks market share.^[2]

Maeruay snack food factory was founded in 1964 by Mr. Chookiat Ruayjaroensap and Mrs. Jiraporn Ruayjaroensap as a manufacturer of roasted nut and shrimp crackers. The company is located at Ekachai Road, Bang Khun Thian.^[3]

In 1976 the company established the well-known snack named "Koh-Kae", the coated peanut coconut flavor, and became a popular snack in every age. In 1977 the company expanded to support the demand of customers. Now, the new company has been located at Rama 2 Road with 12 Acres area.^[3]

Mr. Chookiat Ruayjaroensap invented the name "Koh-Kae" because he needed the name to be different from the other snacks at that time. The original idea comes from Japan, as the cloth that the mascot wears in the logo is a judo uniform.

Koh-Kae is the original snack that has sold for a long time but it's still the best-selling product of the company, more than 80% of total sales are from Koh-Kae and 30% under Koh-Kae brand are from the first product, the coated peanuts coconut flavor.^[4]

The generation of Koh-Kae has been sent through the second generation which started to manage in 2000 and met an important turning point in the business by increasing sales from 600million to 2,600million baht.^[4]

It uses a frying process to dry out the peanut and ingredients and make it crispy. The peanut needs to be the same size, regularly glazed, light-brown color, not burn, and have a scent of coconut.^[5]

Peanuts 50%, Wheat Flour 27%, Sugar 10%, Vegetable Oil 5%, iodized Salt 5%, Coconut Cream 3%, Raising Agent (INS 503), Sweetener (Acesulfame-K), Antioxidant (INS 319), Packaging Gas (INS 941)^[6]

Nutrition

Nutrition facts, Calories, Energy in Koh-Kae peanut in 20gram has Energy of 180 kilocalories, Protein 8 grams, Carbohydrate 7 grams, Fat 13 grams, Sodium 180 milligrams.^[7]

There are many flavors available, but the original is the coconut flavor since 1976.

There are also many products other than coated peanuts such as roasted peanuts, green peas, broad beans, mung beans, etc. which were produced and developed after.

• Coconut cream
• Chicken
• Coffee
• Shrimp
• Nori-Wasabi
• Tom Yum
• Barbeque
• Ovaltine
• Sweet Chili sauce
• Mala BBQ
• Mala Spicy hot pot
• Durian

• Salted peanuts
• Roasted peanuts
• Honey peanuts
• Chili & Salt peanuts
• Thai Spicy peanuts
• Salted Red skin peanuts
• Salted Groundnuts
• Peanut Crackers

• Koh-Kae max Squid
• Koh-Kae max Cheese
• Koh-Kae max Wasabi & Japanese sauce
• Koh-Kae max Texas Bar-B-Q

• Salted
• Sriracha sauce
• Shrimp
• Wasabi
• Sprinkle salt

• Seafood Curry
• Shrimp flavor
• Chili
• Salted
• Seaweed
• Crab Roe
• Spicy Chicken Wings

• Koh-Kae Mixed nuts with salt
• Salted
• Wasabi Crab stick
• Seaweed
• Barbeque

• 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

• Roasted cashews
• Roasted pistachios
• Mixed nuts
• Roasted almonds

• Sea-salt almonds
• Roasted almonds
• Roasted pistachios
• Roasted cashew nuts

• Mixed flavor
• Seaweed
• Cochujang

• Classic
• Seaweed & Japanese sauce
• Sour cream & Onion
• Cheese

• Koh-Kae Choco ball (chocolate coated peanuts)

• 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

• T-shirt
• Figure
• Bag
• Other merchandise included Clocks, Water bottle, Koh-Glassy Umbrella and Koh-Kae multi-purpose box.

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.^[4]

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).^[4][2]

Koh Kae’s Marketing strong points are the fact that it was already the consumers favorite product of nut snacks, so they strengthened this point up by emphasizing on distributing their products to consumers, in other words making it easier for consumers to buy their products via selling through convenient and local stores as well as selling on several online stores.^[4]

In 2009, they made a campaign called ‘โดดงับ รับล้าน’ which help boost up their market growth excellently and in 2019 they have Thai celebrity, เป๊ก ผลิตโชค, as their new presenter for their Koh Kae green peas products branch as well as new commercial and advertisement which expected to boost up their growth again.^[2][4]

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.^[22]

Koh-Kae’s logo was invented by mr. Chookiat Ruaycharoensub, ceo, which was inspired by one of his Japanese postcards and named it “โก๋แก่”

Mr. Chookiat Ruayjaroensap invented the name "Koh-kae" because he needed the name to be different from the other snakes at that time. The original idea comes from Japan, you can see the clothes in the logo that he wears a judo uniform.^[23]

• Koh-Kae Archived 2011-01-29 at the Wayback Machine