HONG KONG — How often do you munch on Taokaenoi's seaweed snacks?

Even before coronavirus snuffed out everyone's travel plans, you hardly had to travel all the way to Bangkok to pick up the Thailand-produced nibbles, considering that they're stocked at 7-Elevens and convenience stores across East and Southeast Asia.

According to Nielsen's 2014 global "Snack Attack" report, 57 per cent of Asian consumers snack on vegetables; Taokaenoi Food and Marketing specifically exports to 40 countries across the globe and holds a 70 per cent share of the seaweed snack market, according to Forbes.

But have you ever wondered who the brains behind the bites is? You might be surprised to know that he's a 35-year-old school dropout.

Itthipat "Tob" Peeradechapan's life story is an open book. It was even made into Thai film The Billionaire (aka Top Secret: Wai Roon Pan Lan) in 2011.

Although real life is probably less dramatic than the movies, Mr Peeradechapan's defiance of the odds and passion to help his family are still captivating qualities indeed.

His story began when he found out that his parents' debts exceeded 40 million baht (S$1.75 million) in 2002. This was after his father's formerly thriving construction business folded in 1997.

An avid online gamer since childhood, the teenage Mr Peeradechapan made some money through gaming, even earning US$10,000 from selling gaming products.

But by the time he was in his first year of university, he decided to drop out of school to focus on making money.

His first venture was selling DVD players. When that didn't pan out, he switched to roasted chestnuts, investing around US$7,200 to open a stall in a mall.

Goings were slow until he got a break with Thai hypermarket chain — or combination supermarket and department store — Tesco Lotus.

"My kiosk was close to the cash counter," he said in an interview with Forbes. "It was all about location, location, location." He called his venture Taokaenoi, or "little boss", the nickname that his father gave him for his status as a young entrepreneur.

By the time he turned 19, Mr Peeradechapan's business had expanded to 30 locations and employed 50 staff. But the tides turned yet again when new management at Tesco Lotus requested that he move his stalls outside due to the smoke, bringing his sales back down.

What came next was the venture that would be his biggest moneymaker. Mr Peeradechapan got the idea to create a seaweed snack when his girlfriend gave him some fried seaweed from her university's store.

He enlisted the help of his mum as well as specialists at Kasetsart University, and had a company logo designed. By 2006 he had his own factory.

But it wasn't smooth sailing from there. When he launched his fried seaweed snack, also dubbed Taokaenoi, in 7-Eleven, sales were stagnant.

Although sales improved once the convenience store managers placed the snacks in more visible locations on the shelves, in 2011 misfortune struck yet again when a crippling flood destroyed his factory, and Mr Peeradechapan had to work nonstop for three months to fix the problem.

The rest is history. Mr Peeradechapan was listed on Forbes' "Thailand's 50 Richest" list in 2018 with a net worth of US$600 million.

It's safe to say that his family probably won't have to worry about financial troubles ever again. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST