There is an old saying that goes, "It is easy to start a business, but difficult to keep it."

In ancient times, Liu Adou, who could not afford to be supported, handed over the country built by his father into the hands of others; during the Republic of China, Jiangxi's richest salt merchant Zhou Fujiu had his tens of millions of wealth dispersed by his two sons; the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai His son Sheng Enyi lost more than 14 billion in his life.

In recent years, Haixin Group, built by Shanxi's richest man Li Haicang, has assets of 4 billion, and his son Li Zhaohui changed hands in just one and a half years.

Since ancient times, people seem to be unable to escape the fate of "no more than three generations of poverty and no more than three generations of wealth", and the same is true for Thailand's "beverage king" Xu Shubiao.

Xu Shubiao is the founder of Red Bull. He once ranked second on the rich list in Thailand with a net worth of US$5 billion. However, because his 11 children failed to live up to expectations, the family business was in turmoil. When he was 87 years old, he actually wanted to Marrying a 19-year-old secretary "happily", what kind of life has he experienced?

Xu Shubiao was born in a small village in Wenchang, Hainan. In order to escape the war and get rid of a life of poverty, Xu Shubiao joined the ranks of those who "sailed to Southeast Asia" and went to Thailand to make a living.

When Xu Shubiao was two years old, his father established a foothold in Thailand and brought his family to Thailand to live together.

In the beginning, the family made a living by raising ducks and selling fruits, and their life was very difficult. Because there were many children in the family, Xu Shubiao only studied for a few years and helped feed ducks, sell fruits, and take care of his younger brothers and sisters at home.

When he grew up, Xu Shubiao worked as a bus conductor. He worked hard and saved money while working.

When he was in his early 20s, Xu Shubiao and his brother went to Bangkok to make a living. As a newbie, he worked as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company called FECelie. He went to the street every day to sell to everyone on the street.

Xu Shubiao worked hard and diligently, not only earning his first wealth in life - 200 yuan, but also mastering relevant professional knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry.

There was absolutely no way out from working part-time, so he started his own business. At that time, Xu Shubiao was already 40 years old.

Xu Shubiao took the 200 yuan he saved and founded his own pharmaceutical factory in the old town of Thailand. It was actually a small workshop and named it Tencel Pharmaceutical Factory.

Don’t look at “the sparrow may be small, but it has all the internal organs.” Pharmaceutical companies not only sell drugs, but also engage in drug research and development. When he first started, Xu Shubiao was busy with many jobs, from leader to worker to salesman and R&D personnel.

Later, his son said in an interview with Thailand's "The Nation": "My father has been working all his life, but he never complained that he was tired. He really liked his job and often stayed up late. One or two o'clock in the evening. When he talks about his work, he is always so happy and excited."

Through Xu Shubiao's unremitting efforts, the antibiotics produced by Tencel Pharmaceuticals have entered the Thai pharmaceutical market. market, but the competition in the market is still extremely fierce.

Xu Shubiao, who was worried that he could not find a breakthrough, by chance developed a medicinal solution containing water, sugar, caffeine, fiber alcohol and vitamin B, which can be refreshing and taste good. , which made Xu Shubiao suddenly enlightened.

He boldly hypothesized that if this medicinal liquid is put on the market as a beverage, it will not only avoid competition in the pharmaceutical market, but also fill the gap in the functional beverage market. It is expected to suddenly emerge and kill two birds with one stone.

This was a huge business opportunity. Based on his sensitive business insight, Xu Shubiao decisively gave up on pharmaceutical production and focused on beverages with caffeine and vitamins as his main market.

In order to reflect the "functionality" of the drink, he chose two Indian bison, which symbolized fighting spirit, as the trademark and named it "Red Bull", and "Red Bull" was born.

Sales of the newly launched Red Bull drink were not good. The smart Xu Shubiao noticed that Thailand was a major exporter of rubber in Asia at the time, and front-line workers and truck drivers had to work shifts and were exhausted.

Based on the selling points of his own products, Xu Shubiao promoted Red Bull by giving free tastings to truck drivers and factory workers.

In terms of geographical selection, Xu Shubiao avoided the Bangkok market occupied by leading products and chose to launch Red Bull in cities surrounding Bangkok. This marketing method of "surrounding the city with rural areas" achieved the expected results.

After the opening of external markets, Red Bull won the Bangkok market in one fell swoop, and Red Bull’s sales were completely opened in the Thai market.

In just one year, Red Bull ranked second in sales in Thailand.

The following year, Red Bull’s sales surpassed the number one Japanese product, Power Health, and became the best-selling product of the year.

After Red Bull became well known and accepted by the public, its sales were extremely hot. As a businessman with a far-sighted vision, Xu Shubiao was not willing to be a rich man. Red Bull should go international and move towards a broader market.

So he began to aggressively build factories abroad, with assembly lines producing 24 hours a day with "people resting and machines not resting".

Soon, Red Bull was blooming all over Southeast Asia, Western Europe and Northern Europe, and Xu Shubiao's reputation as the "Beverage King" in Thailand was well deserved.

The first handshake between Xu Shubiao and toothpaste businessman Dietrich Matschitz really kicked off Red Bull’s entry into the international market.

In 1982, Austrian businessman Mattschitz came to Asia for the first time. After getting off the plane, he felt very tired. When he went into the store to buy a drink, the salesperson recommended a "refreshing" drink to him - —Red Bull.

After drinking, Matschitz felt that his fatigue had disappeared and he felt more energetic. The businessman's intuition told him that the business opportunity should not be missed.

Matschitz came to Thailand and took the initiative to find Xu Shubiao and told him his plan to introduce Red Bull to the European market. The two hit it off immediately.

Without further ado, the two co-founded Austrian Red Bull in 1984. They each invested US$500,000, each holding 49% of the shares, and Xu Shubiao’s son held the remaining 2%.

Considering that Europeans have the habit of drinking carbonated drinks, Xu Shubiao agreed with Austria to add carbonic acid to the improved formula to turn Red Bull into a sparkling drink, which is the blue-packed Red Bull currently on the market.

Mattschitz accurately positioned Red Bull as a sports energy drink, and used Red Bull as the title sponsor for a test flight of a man-made fiber hang glider in Austria, making Red Bull an instant hit locally.

Red Bull has also been exported to more than 70 countries and regions, starting its journey from Thailand to the world.

Mattschitz has undoubtedly become the biggest beneficiary of this cooperation, with a net worth of US$21.2 billion, making him the richest man in Austria.

Xu Shubiao is a persistent person. In his impression, there is nothing called "too difficult" or "impossible".

In order to globalize Red Bull beverages, Xu Shubiao has been insisting on self-study English and law. He believes that to enter Red Bull into the international market and become invincible, knowing English and law are prerequisites.

Xu Shubiao’s confidence is as sharp as the sales volume of Red Bull. China, with a consumer market worth hundreds of millions of yuan, has become Xu Shubiao’s next challenge.

In 1991, Xu Shubiao took members of the Xu family back to his hometown of Hainan for the first time to conduct a field investigation and wanted to build a Red Bull beverage factory in Sanjiang Town, Qiongzhou City.

However, because Red Bull’s caffeine content exceeded the standard and did not meet the production standards of the Chinese beverage industry, it was rejected, and this project has been shelved.

As a result, the appearance of Yan Bin, a Chinese from Thailand, changed Xu Shubiao's investment and construction of factories in China.

Yan Bin, who once had the experience of selling blood to make a living, has a strikingly similar experience to Xu Shubiao, who started from scratch.

The two had a very pleasant conversation after their first meeting, and immediately finalized an agreement: During the fifty-year operation period, Yan Bin would be responsible for solving the issue of health food approval certificates and for the production and sales of Red Bull in China. Silk Group provides raw materials, process formulas and profits, ensuring China Red Bull’s exclusive production and operation rights in China for 50 years.

In order to obtain approval, Yan Bin set 1/8 of the taurine content in Thai Red Bull as the production standard for domestic Red Bull, and the caffeine in each can of domestic Red Bull was also reduced by 30 milligrams.

After adjusting the formula, it was successfully approved for production, Hainan Red Bull Beverage Co., Ltd. was established, and Reignwood Group, a subsidiary of Yan Bin, officially introduced the Red Bull brand to China.

From 1995 to 1998, Yan Bin invested 200 million in the first broadcast of the "Red Bull Comes to China" advertisement at China's most influential CCTV Spring Festival Gala, but the results were not ideal.

Unwilling to admit defeat, Yan Bin led his team to sell the products door to door and distributed them to taxi drivers for free.

Thanks to Yan Bin’s persistence and the continuous broadcast of Red Bull commercials on TV stations during prime time, this anti-fatigue divine water became popular all over China.

"Drink Red Bull when you are thirsty, drink Red Bull when you are tired or sleepy!" The simple and crude advertising slogan is a household name, and Red Bull has become the number one functional beverage brand in China.

In just one or two years, Red Bull’s audience has expanded from drivers, nightclub entertainers, and staff who often stay up late to teenagers, sports enthusiasts, etc.

In the domestic market, it took Red Bull 16 years to go from 0 to 10 billion, but it only took two years to go from 10 billion to 20 billion. In the 2019 Hurun Rich List, Yan Bin ranked 26th in China with a net worth of 80 billion, ahead of Liu Qiangdong and Lei Jun.

Red Bull not only made the “Beverage King”, but also made Yan Bin.

Today, Red Bull beverage has become a well-known beverage popular around the world. In 2010, more than 4 billion cans of Red Bull were sold around the world, and Red Bull brought Xu Shubiao US$358,000 every day.

In 2012, Xu Shubiao was selected as the 205th richest person in the world and the second richest person in Thailand by Forbes magazine with a net worth of US$5 billion.

Xu Shubiao’s life can be called an inspirational example. "Bangkok Post" said: "Xu Shubiao is a business and marketing wizard. He made people all over the world know about Thailand's functional drinks."

In 2012, 90-year-old Xu Shubiao died of illness. As the founder of Red Bull Group, Xu Shubiao completed his legendary life. In accordance with Thai tradition, Xu Shubiao's family held a week-long traditional religious ceremony for him at a temple in western Bangkok.

Xu Shubiao is a low-key person and has never accepted media interviews for more than 30 years. He has very low requirements for material life, and brand-name clothes and luxury cars are just extraneous things to him.

Xu Shubiao often wore shabby clothes and rode his bicycle to patrol his factory. Once, he was stopped outside the door of his factory by a new security guard.

Cao Dewang regarded charity as his own spiritual practice. After he became successful, Xu Shubiao also paid great attention to charity.

He believes that every company has its social responsibilities. This era has made him successful. He also wants to be grateful to the society and give back to the society.

In the small village where he lived as a child, Xu Shubiao built temples and roads. After the floods in 2011, Xu Shubiao donated money and materials to help rebuild his hometown, set up scholarships for local children, and helped poor left-behind children continue to go to school.

Baofang Qidi Primary School, Baofang Middle School, Wenchang Middle School, etc. have all received funding from Xu Shubiao. Xu Shubiao also arranged for villagers to find employment in his factory. Now when Xu Shubiao's name is mentioned, the villagers are very grateful.

During the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Xu Shubiao immediately donated RMB 1.11 million to tide over the difficulties with the people of Wenchuan.

The Thai government also received 150 million baht donated by Xu Shubiao to establish social welfare undertakings. The King of Thailand awarded Xu Shubiao for his contribution to the country.

Xu Shubiao also likes to sponsor and organize various events. In China, Red Bull has sponsored the China Youth Three-person Basketball Tournament many times. Red Bull is present in all events and extreme sports, which further demonstrates the brand power of Red Bull. , Xu Shubiao was also awarded the title of the first batch of "Special Honorary Citizens" by the Wenchang County Government.

Today, Xu Shubiao’s era no longer exists, but Tencel Group’s belief in giving back to society has not changed. During the COVID-19 epidemic, Tencel Group donated 12 million yuan and a large number of Red Bull products to support epidemic prevention and control work.

Xu Shubiao’s business was booming, but his family was not as happy as he wanted. He married two wives in his life and had 11 children. Xu Shubiao was a business wizard, but his children did not inherit his excellent genes.

Perhaps Xu Shubiao was too protective, which made his children all mediocre people who only knew how to enjoy themselves.

This also forced Xu Shubiao to hand over the inheritance rights to his eldest grandson, Wolayu. Unexpectedly, Xu Shubiao, who was always smart, also had times where he "stumbled".

Vorayut's performance also caused Xu Shubiao, who passed away, to lose face and be exposed to the public eye countless times.

The 87-year-old Xu Shubiao could not get the warmth from his family. He once devoted his feelings to a 19-year-old female secretary and tried to marry her. This absurd move was criticized Strong opposition from family members.

In desperation, this "happy" marriage was abandoned, and this incident became a major failure in Xu Shubiao's glorious life.

In September 2012, Vorayuth, the grandson of billionaire Xu Shubiao, drove a silver Ferrari and killed a police officer before escaping. This case brought the Red Bull Group and the Xu family to the forefront.

According to multiple foreign media reports from the "Bangkok Post", Thai police officer Wissien Grampasho was patrolling on a motorcycle on Bangkok's famous Sukhumvit land when he was hit by a Ferrari sports car.

The sports car dragged him for more than 100 meters before escaping. When the police tracked him to Xu's mansion, the Xu family actually wanted to push out the driver to pick up the bag

In the end, the police confirmed that the driver of the escape was It is Wolayu, the future successor of the Xu family. Wolayu relies on his family's financial status and acts unscrupulously. He fell in love with his maid, and in order to get her, he killed the maid's husband, the police officer Wilson Granbaso, with his car.

This vicious incident occurred less than half a year after the death of Xu Shubiao. After the incident, the prince of the Xu family was released from prison on bail of 500,000 baht by his father, the current boss of the Thai Red Bull Group.

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After that, Vorayut took his own luxury business jet to the UK with his mother to watch the Silverstone F1 race; celebrated his birthday at the top restaurant in London; Watch beautiful women on the beach in Casablanca; ski in Japan and feel happy.

The Thai court sent summons to Vorayut seven times, but the lawyer refused for various reasons.

Later, Vorayut and his family appeared in a grand manner in the holy city of Luang Prabang, Laos, went to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha, and then continued to enjoy various high-profile purchases and holidays.

In the eyes of wealthy people, the lives of civilians are as insignificant. For Prince Xu, killing is just a trivial matter.

In the past few years, the prosecutor's failure to bring Vorayuth to court has aroused public outrage in Thailand. Some people have launched a boycott of Red Bull drinks on the streets in protest on social media and even in universities. There are only a few peacemakers, but it doesn't help.

Thai law stipulates that the prosecution period for speeding is one year. The Thai prosecutors will no longer prosecute Vorayut for speeding on the grounds that one year after the accident occurred.

Five years later, the prosecution period for the hit-and-run accident has passed. In the free and luxurious life, Vorayuth's crime has also disappeared. British historian Chris Baker and his Thai wife have also written a lot about the widespread inequality and power-money relationships in Thailand.

He said: "It is not surprising to him that Vorayut has not been tried so far. It is very common for powerful or wealthy people in Thailand to evade legal punishment. It is common to see "It has become a part of Thai culture."

The "Straits Times" report also said that Thai people have become accustomed to this.

Under the pressure of public opinion, the Thai Procuratorate issued an arrest warrant for Vorayut for the first time in 2017, but Prince Xu had already left early and was missing.

In 2020, the Thai police's momentum of "not giving up until Vorayut is arrested and brought to justice" suddenly disappeared, and they inexplicably announced the withdrawal of the charges against Prince Xu.

Overseas experts said: “It has become commonplace for powerful and wealthy people to ‘cover the sky with one hand’ in Thailand.

"

With the death of Xu Shubiao, the era of Yan Bin and Xu Shubiao is gone forever, and the "50-year" production and management rights agreed upon were denied by the new successor of the Tencel Group.

The lawsuits between Thai Red Bull and China Red Bull over trademarks, equity and dividends are constantly escalating. Tencel and Reignwood are also struggling in the vortex of disputes. It is inevitable that both sides will suffer losses. Red Bull's market share in China has dropped from 87% to 87%. 50%.

In order to seize the Chinese market, Thai Red Bull did not hesitate to "kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred to itself". It attracted Yangyuan Six Walnuts to join in to get a share of the pie, and planned to invest 1.06 billion in Beijing. Build a factory and officially declare war on China Red Bull.

Not to be outdone, China Red Bull has lost half of its power in China.

Who will be the winner in the Red Sea of ??soft drinks in the future. Not necessarily.

Xu Shubiao, who put himself on the throne with 200 yuan, may be the biggest regret in his life because he failed to cultivate a qualified heir. I wonder if the myth he created can continue. How long?

Baidu Encyclopedia "The Life of Xu Shubiao"

Think Tank "Xu Shubiao"

Jiemian News "The heir of Thailand's Red Bull killed a policeman but the charges were dropped. The Thai police: A thorough investigation will be conducted"

"Hit-and-run incident is wanted globally! Eight years after the incident, the grandson of the founder of "Red Bull" was given an "exoneration charm" by Thailand"