In the late 1990s, "Drinking Red Bull when you are thirsty, and drinking Red Bull even when you are tired" made Red Bull vitamin functional beverages become popular quickly. The deep imprint left by this household slogan and Red Bull drinks accompanied Chinese consumers for 26 years, becoming a national brand with annual sales of more than 5 billion cans.
What is unknown is that although Hyd Bull is an international brand, China Red Bull is a national enterprise. Red Bull When he came to China, the Thai side was preparing to use the Chinese "Red Bull" name product. The actual trader of China Red Bull, Huabin Group Chairman Yan Bin insisted on using the Chinese "Red Bull" trademark and stipulated in the joint venture contract that "the trademark of the product of the joint venture is part of the assets of the joint venture." How to build China Red Bull into a Chinese brand and national enterprise starts with a "fifty-year agreement" signed on behalf of the joint venture in 1995.
1 Red Bull came to China in just two words: return
Thai Chinese Xu Shubiao In the 1970s, it developed a nourishing drink named "Krating Daeng", and it ended up being very popular among night shift workers and truck drivers. In 1982, Mattschz, a businessman from Austria, discovered this drink and had the idea of introducing it into Europe. , but he did not want to be just an agent, as it would be very likely that he would be kicked away by the manufacturer after the brand became bigger. Under Mattshiz's lobbying, Xu Shubiao agreed to establish a joint venture in Austria. Xu Shubiao and Mattshiz each hold 49% of the shares, and 2% belong to Xu Shubiao's eldest son Xu Shuen. In 1983, the Austrian joint venture improved the formula and registered the "Red Bull" trademark. Mattsz was responsible for the specific operation of the joint venture. It can be said that Xu Shubiao invented "Krating Daeng", but it was Mattsz who really promoted Red Bull to the world and became a famous international brand.
1993, Xu Shubiao built a factory in Hainan, intending to introduce "Krating Daeng" to China, but finally failed. On the one hand, he was not familiar with domestic market policies and could not get product production approval documents. On the other hand, the "Red Bull+ Picture" trademark had a similar registered trademark because of the bullfighting pattern, and he could not register it for a long time. He was full of confusion, until he met Yan Bin, an entrepreneur who was very active in the economic and cultural exchanges between China and Thailand at that time.
At that time, there was no functional beverage category in China. After a lot of market research, Yan Bin decided to cooperate with two state-owned enterprises. After expert demonstration and communication with the competent authorities, In September 11995, the state-owned enterprise China Food Industry Corporation obtained the "vitamin functional beverage" production license approval, and the main ingredients and content standards of the first functional beverage in China were born, which not only became a key factor for Red Bull Beverage to enter the Chinese market, but also created a new category for the Chinese beverage market. Afterwards, after difficult negotiations and large-scale investment, the company of the bullfighting logo trademark gave up its trademark objection, and the Chinese Red Bull and Title trademark was successfully registered.
Before the establishment of the joint venture, Yan Bin signed a fifty-year cooperation agreement with Thai Tennis and two state-owned enterprises on behalf of the prepared joint venture. The agreement not only stipulates that only China Red Bull has the right to exclusively produce and sell Red Bull beverages in China, but also clearly stipulates that Thailand Tennis shall not produce and sell Red Bull beverages in China, which has become a guarantee for all parties to obtain long-term benefits. It can be said that it is a legal guarantee for the survival and development of China Red Bull. It is also a prerequisite for all parties to dare to invest huge amounts of money to cultivate the market after Xu Shubiao failed in production in China. The joint venture contract signed by the parties also stipulates that "the trademark of the joint venture's products is part of the joint venture's assets." Without the above two documents, Yan Bin and the two state-owned enterprises would not have invested billions of yuan in huge investments on the premise of hopeless prospects and unprotected rights and interests to "smash" Red Bull, an unknown beverage brand in the Chinese market.
Of course, bringing in is the first step, and it is more important to survive.Based on Yan Bin and Xu Shubiao's original intention and common desire to cooperate to repay the motherland, Yan Bin often said that Red Bull came to China in just two words: return. Specifically, it is necessary to "strengthen the Chinese people who are constantly striving for self-improvement and thriving in reform and opening up." Based on this, Huabin Group and Yan Bin personally spent huge amounts of money to invest in the business of China Red Bull. In order to adapt to the domestic market and cultivate consumption concepts, China Red Bull adopted the word "Red Bull" in simplified Chinese for the first time in packaging; applied for an appearance patent for the iconic three-necked gold can; fully demonstrated the functionality and safety of the new formula Red Bull beverage, and obtained a health food approval certificate. Faced with the initial bleak sales performance, the Chinese Red Bull team put forward the slogan "There is no blind spot in the market, and every store must be entered". Even if there are only two cans of Red Bull, it must be placed on the most obvious position in the shelves. Yan Bin also personally led the team to give Red Bull to taxi drivers in the big winter.
As China Red Bull sales and scale expand, a large amount of funds are urgently needed. Thailand Tennis did not invest further. Huabin Group mortgaged all its assets to the bank to raise money to send blood to China Red Bull, and invested huge amounts of money to build its own production base and sales channels. After 2015, China Red Bull's annual sales remained stable at more than 20 billion yuan. From 1995 to 2016, in the development of the Chinese market for more than 20 years, Huabin Group has become an important guarantee for the development of China Red Bull in terms of financing blood transfusion or operational support. Thailand Tensile has not participated in the operation for more than 20 years and has no reputation in China. As of 2014,Thailand Tensile has taken 4 billion yuan from China Red Bull.
2 The Red Bull dispute originated from the breakdown of the negotiations, or is there another reason behind it?
Xu Shubiao has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Yan Bin. One of the words he often says is: If you invest money, you will get angry. However, this mutually beneficial and win-win tacit cooperation suddenly changed with Xu Shubiao's death.
2012 is an important year in the history of Red Bull's global development. In March 2012, Xu Shubiao died of illness. In May 2012, Brand Culture Co., Ltd. was established in Hong Kong. The legal person is the business assistant and Chinese translator of the CEO of Tiansi in Thailand. Later, the company acquired and became the actual controller of Guangzhou Yao Energy Company. After several curves, the delisted beverage brand Yao Energy changed its packaging and name, transformed into "Red Bull Anneji Beverage" and relisted in the Chinese market.
After Xu Shubiao's death, China and Thailand held multiple rounds of negotiations on equity , dividends and cooperation. China Red Bull legal staff said that the purpose of Thailand's second-generation heirs is to take all the Chinese Red Bull brand and production control into their own hands, maximize their interests, and there is no possibility of transition, and they will no longer comply with the agreements of the 50-year agreement and joint venture contract. Although Yan Bin made some concessions, on the one hand, all parties have agreements on a 50-year agreement and joint venture contract. On the other hand, he led the team to build the brand, market network and production base of China. In the end, it is impossible for Chinese agents to agree to only be Red Bull products.
In fact, Yan Bin, who is nearly 70 years old, spent 26 years trying his best to turn China Red Bull into a national industry and make the Chinese Red Bull brand a national brand. This is also the original intention of cooperation with Xu Shubiao. 26 years ago, Yan Bin has not only invested in the construction of five functional beverage production bases: Beijing, Xianning , Yixing , Foshan , and Gui'an , but also built 39 branches across the country, cooperated with thousands of dealers, supported regional economic development, with a cumulative output value of 250 billion yuan and a tax payment of 35 billion yuan. In a sense, the history of the development of the private economy is also the history of financing of private enterprises. Through the continuous financing and investment of Huabin Group, China Red Bull has achieved continuous and rapid development. Yan Bin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Guizhou and a patriotic overseas Chinese leader, also established the Huabin Cultural Foundation, which has been investing in various public welfare undertakings and the needs of the motherland for more than 20 years, and has directly or indirectly accumulated brand reputation for China Red Bull.
But the new heir of Thailand Tennis has been planning for many years and has been ready for it. It has mainly done three things:
China Red Bull once publicly stated that in 2014, Thailand Tennis stopped supplying raw materials and asked the joint venture to hand over all intellectual property documents to Thailand Tennis or Austrian Red Bull. At the same time, it obtained comprehensive data from China Red Bull on the grounds of negotiations. In 2014, Austrian Red Bull entered the Chinese market as a "Jineng Beverage". This is the first one.
Thailand Tennis recruits or poaches the executive team of China Red Bull as a new partner in the sales of the new Red Bull. Not only does China Red Bull serve as the general manager responsible for comprehensive work for more than 10 years, but also middle and senior employees responsible for sales, channels, brands, and legal affairs and public relations. It can be described as a mature team operating Red Bull. This is the second and most critical move.
In 2019, Yao Energy successfully changed to "Red Bull Anneji Beverage", and the product packaging and decoration were almost the same as that of Chinese Red Bull products. Because consumers do not accept the taste, sales are difficult to promote. The "Red Bull vitamin-flavored beverage" imported or OEM was launched on the market. The ingredients and contents of the "Red Bull vitamin-flavored beverage" are even more different from those of China Red Bull. For example, without the ingredients of lysine and caffeine , the B vitamins are several times less, but the packaging and taste are more similar to that of China Red Bull. They quickly seized the market with low prices and placed the three Red Bulls together and sold them together, but consumers were not aware of it. This is the third item.
Nearly six years have passed since the Red Bull dispute broke out in 2016. Whether it is legal preparation, expert operation, or market organization construction, the Thai Tennis Group, which is far away in Thailand, has set off a war for China's Red Bull. The focus of China's Red Bull's rights protection in accordance with the law is still on the two core issues of Red Bull's trademark ownership and the continued implementation of the 50-year agreement. Red Bull Sino-Thailand dispute is more complicated than Wanglaoji Jiaduobao dispute. Whether it is court trial or arbitration institution arbitration, the litigation war between the two parties is still in a tug of war, and the final result is too early, but one thing is certain, that is, China's judicial system and law are fundamentally serving the rights protection and social welfare of real enterprises, not serving foreign capital with disorderly expansion.
3 Capital hunting, China Red Bull's "difficulty of national enterprises" is to be solved
It is precisely because China Red Bull has cultivated a market with annual sales of over 20 billion yuan, and various speculators and capital are surrounded by China Red Bull, which is "hunting". Although Thailand's Tensile has no understanding of the Chinese market and legal environment, with the support of domestic and foreign capital, with the guidance of new domestic agents, Tiansi Red Bull has brought challenges to the normal operation of China's Red Bull through low-price dumping.
China Red Bull said that the essence of the dispute between China and Thailand is that Thailand Tensi tore up the contract and no longer abides by the "fifty-year agreement" and the "joint venture contract" signed in 1995. It does not recognize that the Red Bull product series trademark is part of the assets of the joint venture company, and it starts a new development and promotes products completely different from China Red Bull products to the market and consumers. Under the banner of founders and "cost-performance ratio", it seizes the market through low-price marketing. In fact, it is no different from foreign capital relying on domestic market speculators to batter Chinese national enterprises.
At that time, the country was in poverty and weak that time was unable to protect national enterprises. The market was slaughtered by others. The right to survive in national enterprises was almost held by people, just like a lamb facing a hungry wolf. Nowadays, national enterprises that have struggled to wade a wide river for foreign brands in the domestic market by opening roads across mountains and building bridges across waters, face many bullying. How can national enterprises’ own interests be protected? Isn’t such a dilemma the current portrayal of national technology companies such as Huawei ?
