The Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz succeeded in popularizing Red Bull throughout the world. The company’s co-founder, as secretive as his firm was famous, has died aged 78.
“Dierich Mateschitz passed away today,” management wrote in an email to employees on Saturday, expressing “sadness” and “gratitude for what he has accomplished.” According to the Austrian agency APA, he died of cancer.
Austria’s first fortune
Born on May 20, 1944, he created Red Bull in 1984. This shy personality was considered in 2022 by the magazine Forbes as Austria’s first fortune, estimated at 27.4 billion euros.
The entrepreneur had bet on sports sponsorship so as not to depend solely on the income generated by his energy drink as much as to offer him unparalleled exposure. In 30 years, the firm, which has established its sponsorship policy with extreme sports, has become an essential partner in world sport.
Sponsor of many exploits
From high-flying diving, to wingsuit (freefall in a winged suit) via kitesurfing and up to the paroxysm of stratospheric freefall jumping during which the Austrian Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier in 2012, many exploits out of the norm were emblazoned with the two winged bulls.
Red Bull is also committed to two key disciplines in world sport, Formula 1 and football. The team’s Dutch driver, Max Verstappen, is also world champion for the second consecutive year. And in 2005, the company bought the football club of the Austrian city of Salzburg, then that of Leipzig in Germany. The company also sponsors the athletes themselves, all disciplines combined, including the Brazilian Neymar.
The fruitful association with Chaleo Yoovidhya
The Red Bull energy drink was therefore born during one of his many business trips as the marketing director of a German cosmetics company, when he was served a sugary drink in a luxury bar in Hong Kong. Impressed by the drink’s apparent ability to help him overcome his jet lag, Mateschitz decided to team up with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya, who developed the drink, to found Red Bull in 1984.
Based in a verdant valley in the Alps, in Fuschl-am-See, the drink slowly but surely conquered Western taste buds and the brand grew worldwide thanks to its shrewd marketing. Today, Red Bull employs more than 13,000 people in 172 countries, with a turnover of around 8 billion euros, and sells nearly 10 billion cans a year.
Dietrich Mateschitz owned the paradise island of Laucala in Fiji and numerous properties in Austria. Never married, always in jeans, graying hair, he almost never gave an interview to journalists. We just know he had a son.