Red Bull's Chaleo A Business Genius

[Lite Beer]

Red Bull's Chaleo a business genius

The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK: Country's third richest man passes away at 90; hailed for strong values

Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya, who grew from humble origins to become one of Thailand's wealthiest men, passed away from natural causes at a Bangkok hospital yesterday at the age of 90.

Chaleo will be remembered as a business and marketing genius who made the Thai energy drink famous around the world.

His body was taken from Chulalongkorn Hospital to Wat Kruawan Worawihan in Bangkok Yai for his funeral. The abhi dharma chanting ceremony is due to be held daily from today until Saturday.

Chaleo was chosen among the most acclaimed Thais internationally in The Nation's State of the Nation II project.

Others on the top-10 list include former WTO chief and United Nation Conference on Trade and Development head Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi and painter Tawan Dutchanee.

In a recent interview for The State of the Nation II project, Chaleo's son Saravudh talked fondly about his father and Red Bull. It is part of a series that will be aired starting next month on Nation Channel and published in The Nation. A video version in Thai can be viewed at http://youtu.be/6CZyAU410zQ. An English version will be available later.

Saravudh continues the legendary success of Red Bull, following in his father's footsteps in his approach to work and international marketing.

"I never heard words like 'difficult' or 'impossible' from my father. He dedicated his life to his work and never complained that he was tired. He really enjoyed his work and sometimes carried on until 1 or 2am. When he talked about his work, he was always very happy and active," said Saravudh.

"My father believed that if he wanted to launch a new product, it had to be distinct from the market leader. While the market leader of the energy-drink market mainly targeted the capital, Red Bull pushed into the provincial market first, gaining a foothold by distributing free samples to truck drivers. After its huge success upcountry, Red Bull was later marketed in the capital. He stressed on brand building - a marketing strategy that had not been widely employed up to that time. His strategy has proved to be a key factor in the strength of the Red Bull brand. He was also the first to float the idea of Red Bull going international."

Saravudh stressed that his father never stopped learning. Though he did not receive high education, he studied by himself, especially English and law as he believed these subjects were essential for doing business. When he first introduced Red Bull into the overseas market, "impossible" never came into his mind, even at a time when Thailand was relatively unknown to many countries.

Chaleo married twice and had 11 children, five from his first wife and six from his second. He was born in a poor Chinese migrant family in Phichit that earned their living raising ducks and selling fruit. His first jobs included being a bus conductor.

Thanks to his perseverance, Chaleo ended up with wealth estimated by Forbes at US$5 billion (Bt153.6 billion) as of March - the 205th richest person in the world and Thailand's third richest. His business products are available in more than 70 countries and it owns a winning Formula 1 team.

The Nation, in a special issue released at the end of last year, listed Chaleo as one of 40 Thais eminent internationally.

He was a salesman in 1962 when he started a small pharmaceutical firm, TC Pharmaceutical Industries. First producing antibiotics, it made a fortune for Chaleo when Krating Daeng was introduced in the 1970s - and targeted at truck drivers and blue-collar workers. More success followed when he set up a joint venture in 1984.

His partnership with Austrian-born Dietrich Mateschitz 28 years ago took the world beverage market by storm. Mateschitz visited Thailand in 1982 and discovered that Krating Daeng helped cure his jet-lag very quickly.

He approached TC Pharmaceu-ticals with a proposal to market Krating Daeng in Europe, starting in his native Austria. His proposal was accepted and led to the successful launch of Red Bull in the West in 1987. It later became a global brand.

The publicity-shy Chaleo, however, always worked alongside grassroots networks in Thailand, where Red Bull's main market is.

He never showed off his wealth and his free time was spent running a duck farm. His associates regard him as having business intuition par excellence.

Chaleo lived a simple and low-profile life. He never gave media interviews or made public appearances over the past 30 years.

Chaleo placed importance on the development of people within his business. He loved to give something back to society through the company's proactive CSR (corporate social responsibility) campaigns and activities. His philosophy of a simple life and hard work has been taken up by his children, who are expected to steer the conglomerate to further success.

-- The Nation 2012-03-18

[OzMick]

Anybody that can make a fortune selling that over-priced muck has to be a genius - at least in comparison to his customers.

[negreanu]

over-priced muck

Is it not 10THB a bottle?

[whybother]

I'm just wondering who it was that led to "Red Bull" becoming a global brand - Chaleo or Mateschitz?

[DP25]

over-priced muck

Is it not 10THB a bottle?

It is in Thailand, but everywhere else in the world it is expensive. He didn't become worth $5 billion by selling it at 10 baht a bottle in Thailand. Marketing it as a expensive, high class drink in the US and Europe was where the big money was

[terryp]

Amazing how the real story is not in this PR script ?

It is also Amazing that the liquid is allowed to be sold due to the massive amount of caffeine and even more of it in the Thai bottles

Amazing Thailand

How does Chalerm rate this ? or is it OK to sell drugs like this over the counter>?

[MacWalen]

I like his story. From nothing to becoming a billionaire. Very inspiring.

[noitom]

Rest in peace Chaleo. While his personal bio lists his birth year as 1932, which would make him 80, the Krating Daeng listing in wikipedia, presumably written by Thais, indicates that he died at "89." It's probably sensible to assume that the Thai press just mistakenly picked up the death age from the Krating Daeng wiki without checking the facts, as woud be typical of the Thai press. The Nation did note, in aan earlier obituary, that the Red Bull brand was made world famous by Dietrich Mateschitz, who is still alive. Mateschitz was a marketing genius and took a little known obscure product from a hidden corner in Thai food marts, and turned it into a spectacular global brand.

What would have been interesting to see in this obituary type writing by The Nation would be the charitable contributions and good works done by Chaleo. presumably, a person of vast wealth, $5Billion USD, would have made substantial charitable donations at least in Thailand. perhaps Chaleo started some NGOs and his giving was vast, as might be expected. The Nation's account of his story in this obituary leaves a lot to be desired on this score. His charitable effort and financial contributions to charitable organizations was conspicuous by its absence. As most news obituaries of wealthy people usually reflect charitable giving, this was very poor reporting by the newspaper.

[noitom]

The newspaper noted that TC Pharmaceuticals was founded as a producer of "antibiotics." It would be good to know which ones. Additionally, the newspaper noted that Chaleo had no university education. Hard to reconcile this with the founding of an antibiotic making company. In other words, how did he get the licenses to produce antibiotics without a pharmaceutical university degree? Or did he just invest in the company and someone else "fronted" the licensing and operation? The newspaper could write a much more informative bio/obituary of a very influential Thai business tycoon.

[Misterwhisper]

I'm just wondering who it was that led to "Red Bull" becoming a global brand - Chaleo or Mateschitz?

Exactly my thinking. If it hadn't been for Mateschitz (and his jet lag), Red Bull probably to this day would be exclusivively a domestic brand - and Chaleo would not have become so insanely rich. But no, of course now that the good man has passed on, everybody's lauding his "genius", blissfully forgetting how he struggled in his early years and simply got a lucky break thanks to a foreigner.

[miksguevara]

Rest in peace Chaleo. While his personal bio lists his birth year as 1932, which would make him 80, the Krating Daeng listing in wikipedia, presumably written by Thais, indicates that he died at "89." It's probably sensible to assume that the Thai press just mistakenly picked up the death age from the Krating Daeng wiki without checking the facts, as woud be typical of the Thai press.

Not at all thai's calculate their birth age differently from westerners, I think this would be the reason for this? anyway rest in peace ..personally couldn't drink redbull becaus eit gave me the shxxts , but dam_n all that money from nothing....

[Thai at Heart]

As far ai ever heard it was a copy of japanese drink (lippo)anyway and he was extremely close to and appreciative of his alliance with his foreignp partner. A very humble and ultimately smart businessman

[bigbamboo]

I'm just wondering who it was that led to "Red Bull" becoming a global brand - Chaleo or Mateschitz?

Exactly my thinking. If it hadn't been for Mateschitz (and his jet lag), Red Bull probably to this day would be exclusivively a domestic brand - and Chaleo would not have become so insanely rich. But no, of course now that the good man has passed on, everybody's lauding his "genius", blissfully forgetting how he struggled in his early years and simply got a lucky break thanks to a foreigner.

Agree. It's amazing how rich a Thai can get thanks to meeting a foreigner.........