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BUSINESS

Who was the Austrian billionaire behind Red Bull?

Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, who died Saturday at the age of 78, built a sports and media empire around his Red Bull energy drink, ensuring its global fame and wide-reaching legacy.

Who was the Austrian billionaire behind Red Bull?
A sign reading "Danke Didi" (Thank You Didi) is posted in memory of founder and Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who passed away, as drivers prepare to start the Formula One United States Grand Prix, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on October 23, 2022. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

Mateschitz achieved huge wealth by taking a drink already popular in Asia and adapting it to Western tastes.

He was named as the Alpine EU member’s richest person by Forbes in 2022 with an estimated net worth of $27.4 billion.

From cans to riches

Born in 1944 in the southern province of Styria into a family of teachers, “Didi” studied economics in Vienna.

After his studies, he started out as a salesman marketing detergents for Unilever, but quickly achieved success in business and later became the marketing director of German cosmetics company Blendax.

His legacy — the Red Bull energy drink — was born during one of his many business trips when at a luxury hotel bar in Hong Kong he was served a sweet beverage common in Asia.

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Immediately fond of it — and with the drink reportedly helping him overcome his jet lag — he decided to partner up with the beverage’s developer Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya.

The two men founded Red Bull in 1984. Based in Fuschl-am-See in a verdant Alpine valley, the brand slowly but surely conquered Western taste buds.

Today Red Bull employs more than 13,000 people in 172 countries and sells nearly 10 billion cans a year, creating a turnover of around 8 billion euros.

As a marketing whizz, Mateschitz was obsessed with his brand’s image, massively investing into it and seeking to boost it by sponsoring extreme sports, driving its commercial success.

Red Bull did not leave any opportunities unexploited: Besides forays into music and aviation, the company sponsors athletes, including Austrian record-setting skydiver Felix Baumgartner, and has gradually penetrated the world of mainstream sports. Besides its involvement in Formula One, Red Bull bought the football club of the Austrian city of Salzburg in 2005 followed by Leipzig in Germany, which has become one of the Bundesliga’s leading clubs thanks to the company’s investment.

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In his drive to create the event, but control the message, Mateschitz also founded Media House in Austria in 2007, providing various digital entertainment and thousands of hours of images to interested broadcasters.

He used his riches to buy the paradise island of Laucala in Fiji besides several other properties in his native Austria.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 30, 2018 Red Bull team owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, arrives to the paddock ahead of the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix in Spielberg, central Austria. (Photo by ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP)

Behind the scenes

For all its public events, Red Bull itself has blocked scrutiny.

In 2021, Austrian magazine Dossier published an investigation on Red Bull lobbying that aimed to dampen down criticism that energy drinks when consumed too much can be harmful to health.

Very little is also known about Mateschitz’s private life.

Known for dressing casually — preferably in jeans and sunglasses — he hardly ever gave interviews to journalists and managed to keep a low profile throughout his life.

In a rare interview with the Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung in 2017, the billionaire criticised the lack of control over migration in Europe, sparking a backlash from those advocating open borders.

READ ALSO: Vienna vs Graz: Which city is better for foreign residents?

His media, notably his Servus TV, has also been criticised for biased reporting, particularly for trivialising the Covid-19 pandemic.

He never married. His son, Mark Mateschitz, was born in 1993.

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BUSINESS

Where are Austria’s big international companies located?

Austria's most prominent international companies are involved in banking, insurance, and construction projects worldwide, many but are they all found in Vienna?

Where are Austria's big international companies located?

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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