---
title: "The Red Bull War: Feuds of the Wealthy and Strategies of War"
description: "There is no love or hate without reason, and no permanent enemies or allies, only permanent interests. The ongoing saga between Hua Bin Red Bull and Thai Red Bull adds another vivid footnote to these truths, mirroring the earlier herbal tea war between JDB and Wong Lo Kat, where the core conflict is between the brand's 'biological father' and 'adoptive father'."
author: "陈文石"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-05-18"
language: "en"
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---

# The Red Bull War: Feuds of the Wealthy and Strategies of War

> There is no love or hate without reason, and no permanent enemies or allies, only permanent interests. The ongoing saga between Hua Bin Red Bull and Thai Red Bull adds another vivid footnote to these truths, mirroring the earlier herbal tea war between JDB and Wong Lo Kat, where the core conflict is between the brand's 'biological father' and 'adoptive father'.

There is no love or hate without reason.
Nor are there permanent enemies or comrades, only permanent interests.
Nothing is new under the sun, and the story of Hua Bin Red Bull and Thai Red Bull, with its ups and downs, adds another vivid footnote to these two sentences.
**The Red Bull War: A Remake of the Herbal Tea Story**
History tends to repeat itself. Like the Wang Laoji war, the fundamental issue between Chinese and Thai Red Bull is also a struggle between the brand's "biological father" and "adoptive father."
The process is complex, but the outline is simple. In one sentence: **the grudges and entanglements between an incompetent owner and a capable manager.**
In 1993, Thai Chinese entrepreneur Xu Shubiao, the inventor of Red Bull, built a Red Bull factory in Hainan but was unable to obtain approval to operate a functional beverage business. Through Yan Bin's efforts, Red Bull was able to land in China in the form of a joint venture. Yan Bin's Hua Bin Group thus gained actual control of the Red Bull brand in the Chinese market.
Over more than 20 years, the diligent Hua Bin Red Bull grew the Chinese market from zero to an annual scale of 23 billion yuan. Yan Bin consequently appeared on the 2017 Hurun Global Rich List.
But this "adoptive father" had too big an appetite, and over those 20-plus years, the interests of the Xu family, the largest shareholder, were severely neglected.
According to a report by Caijing quoting Xu Xiongxin, Red Bull China had never held a single board meeting before 2015, and the largest shareholder, the Xu family, had never received a single cent in dividends. The head of the Huairou District township enterprise, which holds a 1% stake in Red Bull China, also said they had only received 600,000 yuan in dividends between 2002 and 2003.
"Hua Bin Red Bull was not fair," commented a former Hua Bin Red Bull executive who knew many inside details.
Therefore, after Xu Shubiao's death in 2012, his son Xu Xiongxin took over as chairman of Thai Tencel Pharmaceutical, and the two sides began years of negotiations, compromises, and falling-outs over Red Bull, gradually escalating into today's Red Bull War.
Children's world is about right and wrong; the business world only looks at strength and results. In the Red Bull War, whether to fight or make peace, who wins or loses, first let's compare the combat power of the two sides.
**Red Bull War: Comparison of Combat Power**
The Thai side's Red Bull already on the Chinese market is called Anaji Red Bull (hereinafter Anaji). Let's look at its cards first. **Brand ownership and usage rights are undoubtedly the biggest card in Anaji's hand, and the recovery of the Red Bull brand is basically a fait accompli.**
The immense influence and appeal behind the brand are Anaji's biggest reliance.
Although this reliance was built by Hua Bin over 20 years, it is clearly not the time to talk about feelings or contributions.
In addition, **Anaji Red Bull lacks funds, experience, production capacity, and team; it is inherently deficient in all aspects.** This is remarkably similar to Guangzhou Pharmaceutical's Wang Laoji in 2012.
**Lack of production capacity**
More than a year ago, Anaji Red Bull signed agreements with channels, everything was ready except the product, but it wasn't until May, when the industry had almost lost patience, that Anaji Red Bull finally hit the market. And production capacity issues may continue to plague Anaji in the future.
**Lack of experience**
Thai Tencel Pharmaceutical has always operated in China through joint ventures like with Hua Bin, and in Austria through licensing to Dietrich Mateschitz, all in licensing or joint venture forms. It is clear that Tencel has almost no experience in cross-border market operations.
**Lack of team**
Tencel is also clear-headed, so it brought in the team of Wang Rui, former president of Hua Bin Red Bull, with her Qifeng Food acting as the agent for the entire Anaji Red Bull operation in the Chinese market, and the main marketing personnel also come from Hua Bin Red Bull. Of course, it is meaningless to bring up who trained these talents at this point.
In fact, lacking the above three is not the most terrifying; the most terrifying is lacking confidence and determination. **Without determination, they won't dare spend money, won't build, lack strategic patience, and lack the courage for terminal hand-to-hand combat. Currently, the determination of the Thai side's Anaji Red Bull has not yet been seen.**
There are many reasons why Guangzhou Pharmaceutical's Wang Laoji won the herbal tea war, but determination must be the first.
As a state-owned enterprise, after recovering the Wang Laoji brand, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical was in a desperate fight; losing would be indefensible to the nation. Therefore, it had enough patience to endure and fight the production capacity war, talent war, advertising war, and terminal war one by one. Of course, including lawsuits.
**Now let's look at Hua Bin Red Bull. It has production capacity, operational capability, channels, and team, with a good hand, but it may lose the Red Bull brand and also the support of the people.**
One cannot deny Hua Bin's contribution to the Red Bull brand, but Yan Bin was severely unfair in profit distribution, perhaps thinking that if heaven grants, not taking it would be a sin.
In short, the completely imbalanced profit distribution not only offended the brand's major shareholder to the extreme but also caused his own former president and team to defect.
The main team members going straight to the enemy camp speaks volumes about the loyalty of the old employer's people. At least in the herbal tea war, we never heard of any old general or brave warrior of JDB immediately raising the flag of rebellion.
Hua Bin's business has long been diversified, with new brands or products like Zhanma, VOSS, and VITA COCO, but Red Bull currently accounts for over 90% of revenue and profit. Despite personally building the Red Bull brand in the Chinese market, Hua Bin seems to have underestimated the difficulty of building Zhanma.
Regardless, Anaji Red Bull is on the market, and the Red Bull War is inevitable. But how it will be fought, to what extent, and whether other brands outside Red Bull will join the fray, and how, are questions of concern to all. In the functional beverage field, except for the losers, no one can stay aloof from the battle.
**Sandbox Speculation on the Red Bull War**
On this battlefield, there will be three camps for a while: Anaji Red Bull, Hua Bin Red Bull, and other brands like Dongpeng and Lehu.
**▲ First question: Will the two Red Bulls engage in a price war?**
The herbal tea war was essentially a protracted price war. At its most intense, Wang Laoji, originally priced at 72 yuan per case, could be bought by consumers at 100 yuan for two cases, with a free stainless steel basin.
The herbal tea war left the battlefield strewn with casualties, forcing the former second-place brand, Heqizheng, to switch to selling brown sugar for postpartum women. If the 6-yuan Red Bull drops to 4 yuan, will Dongpeng and Lehu feel a chill down their spines?
**Once the price system is broken, it cannot be restored, but in the first stage, Anaji is unlikely to launch a serious price war.**
First, Anaji's current production capacity is limited; increasing channel rebates by less than 10% can already effectively erode part of the existing market and release capacity.
In the first stage, when production capacity, channels, and team are not yet mature, it is beneficial for Anaji to maintain a "tacit" state of friction rather than a decisive battle with Hua Bin Red Bull in the market.
At the same time, not fighting a price war is also beneficial to the Red Bull price system. As the "biological father" of Red Bull, Anaji naturally does not want it to be destroyed beyond recovery. Currently, the disclosed arrival policies of Anaji confirm this.
Not fighting a price war also aligns with Hua Bin's short-term interests. When Zhanma is still too weak, all of Hua Bin Group's profits come from Red Bull. Although losing the brand is a foregone conclusion, dragging it out and making more money is also a smart move.
Although the table has been overturned, the negotiation table is not shattered, and there is still a possibility for both sides to sit down again. In this battle, whoever fights well will have stronger bargaining power. Hua Bin's dilemma is: if not a price war, how to curb Anaji's growth?
**▲ Second question: Will Red Bull repeat the herbal tea advertising war?**
The answer is no. Hua Bin will only burn money on Zhanma, and Anaji cannot fight an advertising war and dares not. At this time, advertising would just be inviting Hua Bin Red Bull to benefit from the exposure.
But it can be predicted that **Anaji and Hua Bin will very "tacitly" continue to maintain a state of constant "friction," gaining massive free exposure.**
This tacit understanding is like locking eyes; no words are needed to understand each other. **Tencel hopes to gain more time for Anaji Red Bull to grow, and Hua Bin also hopes to gain more time to continue making money from Red Bull to nurture Zhanma.**
From the facts, both sides currently seem to acquiesce to a state of being broken but not separated. They engage in minor skirmishes, file lawsuits and then withdraw them, occasionally throw out news, and then go quiet. This keeps the media and industry on edge, contributing wave after wave of free traffic to Red Bull.
**▲ Third question: How should Dongpeng and Lehu participate in the war?**
**Rest assured, sports drinks will not repeat the ending of the herbal tea war.**
First, the category is different. Sports drinks are larger than herbal tea, not necessarily a life-or-death struggle, and can accommodate more brands. Moreover, Red Bull has already become a concept of its own; in consumer minds, Red Bull is Red Bull, not necessarily a sports drink.
Second, the opponents are different. Hua Bin Red Bull may be comparable to JDB, but Anaji's capabilities, determination, and strength are far from those of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group. As long as the Red Bull War has not escalated to a bloody price war, the impact on other brands is limited.
But if Anaji is ready and the two sides cannot reach an agreement, Hua Bin will definitely fight with its back to the wall. Once a price war erupts, some brands will certainly suffer, but that is at least a year away.
Dongpeng has already surpassed 6 billion yuan, and with a bow and arrow, it can see Red Bull's back. **If it has a solid market foundation and marketing operations, the Red Bull War may not be an opportunity for Dongpeng and Lehu.**
First, consider how to participate in the war of words between the two Red Bulls. In an era where attention is productivity, how to cleverly and skillfully ride on Red Bull's popularity, attracting widespread channel attention, might solve the problem of nationwide channel expansion.
Second, consider whether it is possible to persuade some Red Bull channel dealers to defect. Red Bull is good, but with anxiety everywhere, in business, which dealer doesn't leave themselves a few escape routes? And currently, besides the unstable Red Bull, who can compete with Dongpeng?
Finally, the market still requires hand-to-hand combat at the terminal to win the street battle. Every war's final victory is marked by the infantry planting the flag on the enemy's command post.
At the current stage, one Red Bull lacks strength to dominate, the other is cutting its team for profit, and Red Bull dealers are anxious and wavering, so there will inevitably be many operational gaps at the terminal.
If Dongpeng and Lehu can effectively grab attention, seize channels, and fight at the terminal during this rare strategic window of over a year, then in three years, who will rule the functional beverage market is still uncertain.
The biggest variable in the future is whether the two Red Bulls will return to the negotiating table. Currently, the Thai side is not pursuing legal action relentlessly, and Hua Bin is also intentionally dragging things out.
Money moves hearts. Since sufficient interests could make people break promises and betray, then in the future, sufficient leverage can also restore "loyalty."
**Extended reading of the Red Bull dispute series:**
Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.
**China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media**
**Dedicated to FMCG manufacturer transformation and channel digital solutions**


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