Red Bull founder Mateschitz: Become a billionaire with a small can

A sweet drink and good marketing were the building blocks for Dietrich Mateschitz’ Red Bull company empire. The Austrian also invested heavily in the sports sector. Now he died at the age of 78.

Who doesn’t know them, the charmingly funny Red Bull cartoons. They’ve had a cult following on German commercial television since the 1990s: “Red Bull. You mean he gives you wings.” The core sentence sticks.

From Thailand to Austria

Red Bull didn’t give Dietrich Mateschitz wings, but he did give him a fortune of an estimated 25 billion euros. He was by far the richest Austrian. He didn’t invent the sweet energy drink with the flavor of gummy bears himself, but adopted it from Thailand. The energy drink Krating Daeng – Roter Bulle – which is popular with workers and truck drivers, has been available there since 1976.

Mateschitz knew the inventor Chaleo Yoovidhya, Mateschitz was a sales representative at Blendax and supplied Yoovidhya with toothpaste. He asked Yoovidhya to release Krating Daeng in western market. The commitment came after a long period of consideration in 1984. Mateschitz then quit his job as a sales representative and from then on devoted himself to building his own company empire. Red Bull started in Austria in 1987 and was banned in Germany until 1994.

“Smell of the Forbidden”

But that didn’t damage the brand, but made it interesting, according to advertising expert Holger Jung, co-founder of the advertising agency Jung von Matt: “There was still no food law recognition, I think because of the taurine. In any case, you couldn’t get over it the border. And it was common, at least in the Bavaria area, for larger amounts to be smuggled across the border in the trunk. That’s why the impression comes that Red Bull has such a light drug aura about it, i.e. the smell of the forbidden.”

Rumors have been spread that Red Bull contains bull semen. Red Bull is now the world’s best-known energy drink. For Mateschitz, however, it was only the basis for a company empire. He invested mainly in the sports sector. Mateschitz owned, among others, the football clubs Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig and New York Red Bulls.

Many investments in the sports sector

He owned the Formula 1 racing teams Red Bull Racing and Alpha Tauri and a lot more. The successful businessman was very media shy. Interviews with him were an absolute rarity.

But there was also a dark side to Mateschitz and his corporate empire. When it came to sponsoring extreme athletes, the ambition sometimes went far beyond the goal. In the ARD documentary “The dark side of Red Bull” reported the cases of six fatally injured extreme athletes, including a skier, a motorcyclist and a parachutist.

Servus-TV, the television station of Red Bull Media House GmbH, was also criticized. Because right-wing populists and corona deniers were offered a platform here.