No Bull: Bloomberg names Red Bull’s Yoovidhya clan richest in world from energy drinks

Financial news service Bloomberg just published a story outlining exactly how large the wealth of the Thai Red Bull family is.

The family of Red Bull’s inventor, the deceased Thai entrepreneur Chaleo Yoovidhya, is made up of 11 members who boast a collective fortune of USD22 billion (THB770 billion), the world’s largest fortune made from energy drinks, reports the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Most of the money is in Red Bull GmbH, the Austrian part of the business that makes and sells the fizzy version of Chaleo’s original, non-carbonated recipe for Red Bull, and the one that most westerners are familiar with.

Chaleo invented Red Bull in 1975, his recipe contains sugar, caffeine, sugar and taurine. It was sold only in Asia until 1987, when an Austrian marketing maverick, Dietrich Mateschitz, tried the drink and contacted Chaleo about distributing the drink to a wider audience.

Of Chaleo’s descendants, ten of them collectively own 49 percent of Red Bull GmbH and his oldest son, Chalerm Yoovidhya, owns an additional 2 percent. The other 49 percent is controlled by Austrian partner Mateschitz.

T.C. Pharmaceutical is another holding of the Yoovidhya clan. That company owns Red Bull China. Seven members of Chaleo’s family hold a 51 percent stake in that company as well.

T.C. began selling Red Bull in China in 1993 and partnered with Thai-Chinese businessman Chanchai Ruayrungruang (aka Yan Bin) for that endeavor.

Red Bull, the first mainstream energy drink, still holds a 42 percent share of the global energy drink market, which did USD43 billion (THB1.5 trillion) in sales last year. That’s including the Asian, Austrian and Chinese arms of the business.

Last year, the Austrian arm alone did USD6.2 billion (THB216 billion) in sales. It’s closest competitor, Monster Energy Drinks, did only USD2.7 billion (THB94 billion) in sales.

However, the Bloomberg story did not touch on any of the scandals involving the Thai Red Bull heirs, namely the hit-and-run ongoing case involving Chaleo’s grandson, Vorayudh “Boss” Yoovidhya.