The Red Bull story started back in 1982. While on a business trip to Thailand, Dietrich Mateschitz, then marketing manager for a major toothpaste brand, discovered the stimulant properties of a local drink aimed at truck drivers. It was called Krating Daeng, which means ‘red bull’ in Thai. Impressed with its effects on his own body, he set out to make it a worldwide success. In 1984, he brought the idea back to Austria, but not without fine-tuning the recipe, which included caffeine, taurine, glucuronolactone, vitamin B, sucrose, glucose and spring water.

In order to get the product established in Europe, the Austrian businessman used all his marketing expertise and came up with the advertising slogan: “Red Bull gives you wings”. “Red Bull Energy Drink was completely new to the market. It saw extremely rapid worldwide growth and can now be found in 164 countries,” says Markus Obrist, marketing director.