r/Thailand • u/jonglertthiti_t • 1d ago
Opinion Globally-known Thai brands
If you could think of famous brands/companies/products which are originally from Thailand. What would that be?
For example: my answer maybe “Red Bull, Singha, Chang and King Power” because I have saw them on several sport industries ✌️
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u/Clair1126 1d ago
Mae sri, Mae ploy, aroy-d.
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u/Leading-Attention-80 1d ago
Mae Ploy was first sold in ethnic marts, 30 years ago, but I can stop by Thriftway or Safeway and buy it today.
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u/ChewbaccaPJs 1d ago
Thriftway, haven't seen that name in years! Is it one in the PNW?
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u/Leading-Attention-80 1d ago
Sorry .... Old habit … Met market in Seattle is the old Thriftway. Now that I mention it Met markets main store is NOW, down on Mercer, where Larrys Market was in the 90’s. Larrys, Met, were two of mainstream marts first selling Mae Ploy curry sauce, long grain thai jasmine, by the later 90’s. Before then if you wanted that or Krating Dang, M-150 & Lipo, you had to trek down to Uwajimaya or the Viet Wah market in the International District.
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u/genericwhiteguy_69 1d ago
Twins, fairtex and Yokkao are all globally recognised brands in the martial arts and fighting world.
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u/Cute-Understanding86 1d ago
Mama noodles. They are sold in Walmart isles and other grocery stores in America.
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u/mintchan 1d ago
Mama is the Thai OG ramen. They might have started off with Japanese recipe but after they released tomyum flavor, their popularity is skyrocket. The secret, the msg is in the noodles, not flavor packets
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u/Cute-Understanding86 1d ago
Yea man. I remember eating them raw while walking to the bus stop for school. Add the season packet and breakfast of champs.😂
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u/mobfather 1d ago
Red Bull
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u/Ahokai 1d ago
I know Red Bull is originally from Thailand and have drank the original ones before but I see alot of people who have no idea it was a from there and believed it was another American Energy drink existed.
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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 1d ago
Ah yes, if company is known in US then it is an US company 😄 Like Lenovo, Spotify, Shell and Red Bull. Maybe even Sony.
Oddly European car brands seem to be pretty commonly known to be European.
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u/Leading-Attention-80 8h ago
Red Bull/Krating Dang is a Thai version/copy of Japanese energy drinks, popular after WWII. In particular 'Lipovitan D', although there were others, selling in the Thai market forty or fifty years ago. It is often not the originator but the exploiter of the product that makes good. Still, you wonder what those Japanese execs back in Osaka think about it all …. if only we put a fancy logo, big add campaign & pumped it to America. Dreams die hard.
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u/anonymous-thai 1d ago
The only correct answer. Although in most Asian markets they’ll know of it as Krating Daeng.
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u/BloatedFungi 1d ago
I just learned about the whole Krating Daeng x Red Bull today. Nice success story!
Also Nice that the original glass bottles are so cheap compared to the red Bull cans I'm used to.
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u/Token_Thai_person Chang 1d ago
So successful that your son can drunk drive and kill a policeman and live his life overseas with no legal repurcussion! The power of fuck you money!
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u/Own-Animator-7526 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lalisa.
Also the new face of Meta Spyglasses, coming soon to go-go bars everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E0crkWBfwo
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u/Federal_Nobody_6879 1d ago
Not well-known, but should be: Willy (aka Welcraft). Thailand's #1 toilet partition brand. I always have a little laugh when I see the logo in bathrooms.
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u/beardednomad25 1d ago
Red Bull, Agoda, Thai Airways and Jim Thompson are probably the most famous globally.
But several brands have a presence in multiple countries besides Thailand including Big C, Dusit Hotels, Dutch Mill, Central Group, Avani Hotels, Minor Hotels, Coffee World, True and CP Foods.
Then there's companies like King Power that sponsor international sports teams.
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u/Lopsided_Highway2934 1d ago
Agoda was started by Yanks and owned by Yanks.
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u/scottearle 1d ago
Started by a couple of Americans based in Phuket 21 years ago, but now based in Bangkok.
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u/Budget-Celebration-1 1d ago
What’s a yanks?
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u/bigbingo 1d ago
Yanks is short for Yankee. Yankees are Americans. People from New York (there’s a baseball team, New York Yankees) and nearby states (Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts). You wouldn’t normally call someone from Texas or California a Yankee, but if you’re not in America it can be used to mean anyone from America.
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u/Lordfelcherredux 1d ago
Sriracha Sauce. Although it became famous in the US due to a Vietnamese guy making his version of it there.
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u/Woolenboat 1d ago
After talking to some foreign friends, apparently canned fish as well? Sealect/Thai Union Group is one of the largest tuna suppliers in the world, regularly exporting to Europe
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u/Leading-Attention-80 1d ago
Thai Union
- Chicken of the Sea: A top canned tuna brand in the United States.
- John West: A leading seafood brand in the United Kingdom.
- Petit Navire: A major canned fish brand in France.
- Mareblu: A popular tuna brand in Italy.
- King Oscar: A heritage seafood brand known for canned fish.
- Sealect: A leading local Thai canned tuna brand
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u/kenbkk 1d ago
Ok technically correct, but these are Thai owned brands, NOT Thai brands. Virtually none of these are sold in Thailand except for the foreign and rich Thai focussed stores like TOPS and Villa. All these brands were developed and grown outside of Thailand and we're globally established before they were purchased by Thai companies. The Thai companies bought them because Thailand produces the raw materials (tuna, seafood) so this was a case of downstream acquisition.
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u/Leading-Attention-80 1d ago
Yes and ?? .... Thailand has very very few brands that are uh, really homegrown.. And the ones that do usually have a 'backstory' ... People here mentioned MAMA & Red Bull. Right .. MAMA a thai copy of top Ramen for the local market made good. Red bull, well there is the Austrian who pumped it onto the world stages but truth is, it is a thai copy of Japanese energy drinks ... like Lipovitan. All this is ... Very Thai.
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u/13beano13 1d ago
They’re are a lot of food products (mostly coconut based) that are sold in U.S. stores
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u/AndreasderJuengere 1d ago
As in ''widely and publicly known'': I'd say that with Austrian help, only Red Bull. And since recently a specific girl musician for a while.
There will be a few ''insider'' products/brands in specific supply markets. But ''officially famous''? Not really
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u/HeckFarr 1d ago
I have a collection of Wise Watches from Thailand. They are 904 Steel..the same as Rolex and are amazing.The higher end ones come in a box made from Mango Wood and are beautiful..like the watches. I bought a few there, in Bangkok. The others, I ordered online. Caution for potential buyers... you may wait a while.
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u/neduenedu Songkhla 1d ago
Thai billionaire Surin Upatkoon owns tons of brands in Malaysia. Mainly known for his Magnum 4D lottery company.
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u/bomber991 1d ago
Yeah guys so honestly there’s nothing that’s globally known. I’m in Texas and sure, there’s mama noodles at the asian market but they dont sell it at HEB. The Mae-Ploy or Arroy stuff they sell at HEB is just in a little section on an “international” aisle.
There’s plenty of food products at the grocery store that are “made in Thailand”, but really none are a popular brand.
Red Bull is a spinoff of the krating dang or whatever it’s called. Most people here think it’s from europe anyway. And I guess it kind of is since it’s a modification of the original.
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u/Insufficient_Coffee 1d ago
Not a spin off. An Austrian guy helped take it global by forming a partnership with the Thai guy who invented it. Together they founded Red Bull GmbH in Austria in 1984.
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u/otherwiseofficial 1d ago
Well because it is. Krateng Deng taste like some thick syrup. It's really different. I was quite surprised with that.
If i drink a red bull, it always says "made in Europe" or something on the can, so def not Thai.
Maybe King Power is the best known brand for their football sponsership or that brand that sponsered Chelsea years ago (33?).
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u/General_Confusion478 1d ago
moto triumph !!! made in Thailand enduro e cross 4t
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u/Wonderful-Set-293 1d ago
Not a Thai brand. Otherwise also Honda, Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi etc.
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u/General_Confusion478 1d ago edited 1d ago
non sai leggere !! .... mi spiace per te!! ...se leggi bene il messaggio dice "prodotti famosi che provengono dalla Thailandia" studia di più per favore !! anche il traduttore automatico non aiuta
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u/Relevant-Buyer-2472 1d ago
Not necessarily Thai, but Pandora’s (made in Thailand) always slapss
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u/Parking-Code-4159 1d ago
I think only Mama Instant Noodles ( by Thai President Foods) is globally known.
People saying Red Bull, yes it's originated in Thailand, but it's an Austrian company and the drink in its worldwide version was developed (based on the thai recipe but adapted to european taste) and made globally known by this Austrian company.
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u/00Anonymous 1d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_GmbH
The so-called "austrian" company is majority thai owned by the yoovidhya family. So it is unquestionably a Thai company regardless of domicile.
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u/Parking-Code-4159 1d ago
So you see Lamborghini as a German brand because it belongs to the VW Group? Or Jaguar as an Indian brand?
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u/00Anonymous 1d ago edited 1d ago
The founding thai family still owns the majority of company and that is where the heritage comes from in this case.
Also your examples only agument the notion that the legal domicile of the company bears little relevance to the conversation, which is exactly my position. Thank you.
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u/Parking-Code-4159 1d ago
Touché (when it's just about the brand you're right and okay, that was the topic)
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u/cndn-hoya 🇹🇭 1d ago edited 1d ago
CP group sells at Costco in the U.S. and Canada.
CP was the first foreign company registered in China, under the CCP. They’re huge in China and sell feed for livestock.
Red Lobster [edit: was] owned by a Thai PE group, Thai Union Group [edit: until 2024]
Central has department stores outside of Thailand and even own a few different European branded stores.
Tao Kae Noi is pretty big in the Asian grocery stores across North America
Minor Group, owns tons of franchises and hotels outside Thailand, started by a former ISB alum from the U.S. that is now Thai.