Red Bull co-founder and F1 team owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, has died at the age of 78.
The Austrian entrepreneur turned the caffeinated canned drink into one of the world’s best-known brands. The energy drink’s slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” and other marketing campaigns revolve around extreme sports and are synonymous with energetic youthfulness.
Mateschitz had a net worth of roughly $20 billion according to Forbes. He and Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya founded Red Bull in 1984, sold their first energy drinks in Austria three years later, and expanded into the US in 1997. Yoovidhya died in 2012.
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What you should know
- More than 9.8 billion cans of Red Bull were sold globally last year, up by around 24% during the prior year, according to the company’s website.
- Group revenues increased by a similar percentage to €7.8 billion. The company employed over 13,600 people at the end of last year.
- The inspiration for the energy drink came to Mateschitz during his travels in Thailand as a marketing director for a toothpaste maker now owned by Procter & Gamble.
- The Red Bull billionaire also built up a vast sports empire that ranged from Formula 1 racing teams to football clubs.
- The Red Bull network of football clubs includes Austria-based Red Bull Salzburg, Germany-based RB Leipzig, and the New York Red Bulls.
- Mateschitz got into the Formula 1 car racing series in the 1990s, bought the Jaguar racing team in 2004 and entered the following season under the Red Bull name.
- With Sebastian Vettel at the wheel, Red Bull Racing won both F1 championships — for drivers and constructors — for four years between 2010 and 2013.
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