Thai village 'betrayed' by Red Bull family
Full article at:'The new generation want wealth... but they don't want to work hard': Thai village 'betrayed' by Red Bull family whose £18bn fortune began on a duck farm before the private jets, fast cars and champagne | Daily Mail Online
The new generation want wealth... but they don't want to work hard': Thai village 'betrayed' by Red Bull family whose £18bn fortune began on a duck farm before the private jets, fast cars and champagn
Dressed in tired clothes and riding a rickety bicycle, an old man was called to a halt at the gates of a Red Bull factory, the world's leading energy drink.
Ignoring the command to stop, the softly-spoken father-of-11 continued peddling into the sprawling complex on the outskirts of Bangkok.
'Uncle! You cannot enter this place!' the young security guard shouted frantically after him. But the elderly cyclist carried on.
For, as the head of security informed the eager new recruit, he was trying to stop Chaleo Yoovidhya, the owner of the company and Thailand's third richest man.
Known as the ‘humble billionaire’, reclusive Mr Yoovidhya began his career as a duck farmer and loved the simple life, turning his nose up at expensive clothes and jewellery.
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Tycoon: Chaleo Yoovidhya, pictured,
invented the drink that became Red Bull
He avoided publicity and wouldn't give interviews - but he never forgot where he came from, the tiny village of Baan Khao Chang in central Thailand.
But since the tycoon's death in 2012, his children - Chalerm, Saravoot, Jiravat, Suthirat, Pranadda, Nucharee, Saipin Phaholyothin, Supreeya, Pavana Langthara, Sakchai and Thavis Pengsa - worth a combined £18 billion, have rarely visited the village where their father grew up, those who live there claim.
'The family gives donations to the Buddhist temple but I've never seen them in the village,' a local man told MailOnline. 'Nothing has changed here, look around.'
The village, in Phichit Province, which many of the locals left to work in the Red Bull factory in Bangkok, looks on with envy at the family's gilded lives of fast cars, private jets and champagne.
A farmer, 35, said: 'Mr Yoovidhya worked hard to earn his right but his younger family were born into their wealth.'
Refusing to refer to the Yoovidhyas directly, another farmer, 22, said: 'Families born into money don't need to work hard, all they care about is themselves. The new generation want wealth and prosperity like everybody, but they don't want to work hard.'
An elderly woman, who claimed to know Mr Yoovidhya, seemed reluctant to criticise the family, saying: 'I don’t want to talk about him as he is rich and I am poor.'
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In 2012, six months after the energy drinks magnate died, his grandson Vorayuth 'Boss' Yoovidhya, allegedly crashed his Ferrari into a police officer on a motorbike and dragged his dead body along a Bangkok street before driving off in a hit and run accident.
'Boss' was arrested and charged with drink driving but, four years on, has yet to face trial.
His father Chalerm, Thailand’s fourth richest person, is now head of the Yoovidhya clan that owns 51 per cent of Red Bull.
A recluse, Mr Yoovidhya was born in 1923 into a poor Chinese family, the third of five children and his early life was tough.
He left school aged 10 and helped his parents with their business selling fruit and ducks on the family’s farm where he was happiest.
His daughter Suthirat once said: 'My dad loves the simple life. He does not wear any jewellery, rings, or show any sign of wealth. He just wears an old watch. He never buys clothes and doesn't like to carry money.'
In 1956 Mr Yoovidhya established T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries to sell antibiotics.
He also reportedly worked as a bus conductor. It was during this time he was said to have noticed how lorry drivers used energy-boosting 'tonic drinks' to revive them on long journeys.
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Home: Despite the business turning into a phenomenal success, Mr Yoovidhya regularly returned to his home village where he built a Buddhist temple, pictured, and created a scholarship program so local children could get free tuition and school meals
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Revered: Mr Yoovidhya is still loved in the village where he was buried in 2012, pictured. 'Good fortune came to him because he was not a selfish person and he always helped others,' a villager told MailOnline
In 1975 he invented a drink made with caffeine, sugar, the amino acid taurine and sucrose to create Krating Daeng, 'red bull' in Thai.
It was sold as an inexpensive energy drink in Asia until 1987, when Austrian toothpaste salesman Diestrich Mateschitz stumbled across it as he sought a cure for jetlag while in Bangkok on business – and the rest is history.
Convinced that the Thai drink had a big future for its reviving qualities in western countries, Mr Mateschitz met Mr Yoovidhya and together they modified the recipe, crucially making it carbonated, and packaged it in distinctive blue and silver cans.
The new wonder drink was first released in the ski resorts of Austria in 1987 where it was lapped up by weary apres-skiers.
With more than double the caffeine of Coca-Cola, the drink appeared to live up to the slogan 'Red Bull gives you wings'.
It soon spread across Europe, coinciding with the 1990's energy-fuelled dance craze – and spawning new high octane cocktails, such as Vodka Bombs, Jumping Jack Flash and Liquid Cocaine.
Mr Mateschitz used innovative marketing strategies – throwing impromptu parties, giving away free samples and convincing students to drive around in trendy VW and mini cars with large blue and silver Red Bull cans on the top.
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Max Verstappen at the Mexico F1 Grand Prix last month
Now permanently associated with youth culture, the company has a Formula One racing team and football teams in Austria and the USA.
