After an extraordinary rise to become the richest Austrian, Dietrich Mateschitz leaves behind 14 gastro establishments, ranging from regional snack bars to the world-renowned Michelin-starred Ikarus.
When a helicopter lands in the small community near Zeltweg, Styria, concern is the usual response. However, on one such occasion, it was not the emergency doctor who stepped out but Dietrich Mateschitz, a statue being built by a local woodcarver had interested the powerful Red Bull boss so much that he came to pick it up himself; it is stories like these that will be remembered about the billionaire, who has died at the age of 78.
Like a modern Archduke Johann, Mateschitz, who also liked to appear in traditional costume, brought progress to areas that had long known only bad news. A patriarch who loved his homeland, owning his own TV station and magazine group, Servus, he used his Austrian roots as his business USP, with concrete investments like the Prebersee, requiring investors to first find its location on the map. The vehicle for this was most recently the Tauroa group, which markets ‘inspiring places’, its gastro activities in keeping with the slogan of the energy drink.
The undisputed marketing talent of Mateschitz marked him out for success from the beginning, first changing the beverage world, then also the gastronomic landscape in Austria. His career really kicked off at Blendax, a company later bought out by Procter & Gamble, where a functional drink he accidentally encountered in Asia was to become the turning point of his career. Krating Daeng, was the energy drink that would later become Red Bull, investing several years in the preliminary work, which was launched in 1987 with the participation of the founding family, Yoovidhya. The global success, even against a plethora of competitors, changed the beverage market.
Even if in the beginning the exclusive bottling partner – Rauch in Rankweil – were wary of the ambitious entrepreneur: “Who would buy such small drinkable energy dispensers at such proud prices?” What was striking, however, was the quality thinking of the new customer, says Erich Rauch: “Whether it was a barely visible scratch on the can or a minimally crooked label on the bottle, Red Bull complained about everything! As annoying as that was at that moment, we learned quickly.”
The first advertisement of Dietrich Mateschitz's novelty, at any rate, was to prove prophetic for him: ‘Birth announcement in cash’ it read above the Red Bull serving can and bottle on a tray. He even subordinated recent acquisitions to modern marketing methods: for example, the respected fish farm at Grundlsee, which was split between local char sales and top gastronomy (wild-caught grayling for the Steirereck restaurant), became the Flossenbox; the first Austria-wide fish subscription bringing char home once a month by post – a regional alternative to frozen fish from the supermarket, as they emphasise.
But even Mateschitz did not always have the Midas touch, and in the end only the market could correct the stubborn founder. For example, the insistence on cans for his bar soft drinks (‘Organics’), which were not accepted even in the biggest après-ski bars; almost a year later, this decision, which some had advised against in advance, was corrected. He sold the licence for his kombucha drink ‘Carpe Diem’, which had started quite visionary before today's fermentation wave, to bottling partner Rauch, and remained loyal to his restaurant Carpe Diem in Salzburg for a long time, even after Jörg Wörther left after two years in 2007. It wasn't until 2019 that the curtain fell on the enterprise in Getreidegasse that started with the stuffed stanitzels, where in the best times Franz Fuiko provided fine dining and bar snacks at the same time.
The legendary Jörg Wörther, who died in 2020, was also at the beginning of Mateschitz's rural gastronomy projects – in 2004 he helped open the Winterstellgut in Lammertal. And the combination of Austria's top chefs and Red Bull projects increased, with Eckart Witzigmann not only acting as an advisor to Ikarus, – an establishment that boasts other international top chefs – the chef of the century also placed his student Roland Trettl as Executive Chef at Hangar 7. Today, Martin Klein implements the worldwide unique concept and this month, he teams up with another Austrian who has cooked up three Michelin stars: Johannes Nuding (formerly of The Lecture Room and Library in the London gastronomic complex, The Sketch), who brings his mentor, cooking legend Pierre Gagnaire, with him.
Around Hangar 7, the location of the impressive Mateschitz aircraft collection in Salzburg, a whole firework of communication unfolded: cookbooks along with TV documentaries that showed how the top chefs work out dishes together. Long before current gastro formats, it gave an insight into the top league of professional cuisine as well as the down-to-earth counterparts across the world.
“Completely different at first glance,” is how the Tauroa homepage itself describes the restaurants in Salzburg, in the Salzkammergut and in the Murtal. But when there were establishments worth preserving, castle restaurants that had become too big or were in need for investment, Mateschitz was happy to strike, most recently at the Landhaus zu Appesbach on Lake Wolfgang, or the Schloss Sauerbrunn in Pöls-Oberkurzheim. Schloss Sauerbrunn became the first management trial for Mateschitz's son Mark, the 19-year-old jointly responsible for the beverage line of lemonades and beer of Thalheimer Heilwasser GmbH, which was detached from Red Bull.
But why the continued insistence of new ventures for a man who could celebrate in Singapore on the Formula 1 grandstand, or spend time on his South Pacific private retreat, Laucala Island?
In one of his rare interviews (he considered public appearances a waste of time throughout his life), Mateschitz confessed to becoming hoamsinnig (translating as ‘close to home’) on his 70th birthday. The energy drink tycoon was born in St. Marein im Mürztal in 1944, a region that is also home to the largest density of restaurants in the Tauroa group. Several of these establishments are located next to other investments of the Red Bull founder, such as the Wasserturm in Zeltweg, or the Landhotel Schönberghof. The Seehotel Grundlsee rounded off the fish farm on Lake Grundlsee, which he had taken over from the Bundesforste and, of course, the world-class cuisine concept in Hangar 7 complements an event hall and TV location of extraordinary dimensions.
The Styrian tycoon, however, at least lived out all his boyhood dreams of fast cars, football and planes like no other Austrian. At the same time, he slowed down in a digital world that had become all too hectic with the simplest request: a lovingly laid table with honest food. His patronage gave many people the opportunity to enjoy local delights “like in the old days”, and Mateschitz not only added the Flügerl drink to the Alpine bar world, or invested in football with RB Leipzig, or Formula 1 with Toro Rosso, he also brought the Champions League of cuisine to Salzburg, and continued to provide Styrian fried chicken at the G’schlössl in Großlobming.
A man who combined his love of life with a deep love of his homeland.
