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interface news reporter | zhao xiaojuan

interface news editor | ya hanxiang

tianyancha shows that on august 29, hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes. zong qinghou resigned as the legal representative and chairman and general manager, and both were replaced by zong fuli. at the same time, several senior executives including zhang hui and wu jianlin withdrew from the positions of directors and supervisors, and ye yaqiong, kong qinming, fei junwei and others were added as directors, and wang guoxiang was added as director and deputy general manager. jiemian news also found the corresponding information in the national enterprise credit information publicity system.

on august 31, jiemian news asked wahaha about this matter and the company's subsequent development, but has not received a response yet.

according to the currently disclosed industrial and commercial information, zong qinghou has withdrawn from the ranks of shareholders. hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. is currently jointly held by three shareholders, namely zong fuli, hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd., and hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association), which hold 29.4%, 46% and 24.6% respectively.

at this point, six months after zong qinghou's death, zong fuli officially took over as the head of wahaha.

prior to this, the outside world had oversimplified the assumption that zong fuli would naturally "inherit" wahaha. however, based on the equity structure of wahaha group, the largest shareholder of wahaha group co., ltd. is the state-owned hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd., and the national enterprise credit information system has not yet shown that zong fuli serves as chairman and legal representative of wahaha group. therefore, there are many uncertainties as to whether zong fuli can "inherit" in these six months.

on july 18, a resignation letter signed by zong fuli, vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group, was circulated on social platforms, with the signature date of july 15. the document stated that recently, the shangcheng district government and some shareholders of hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. ("wahaha group") questioned the rationality of her management of wahaha group since the death of chairman zong qinghou, making it impossible for her to continue to perform her management responsibilities for the group and its holding companies. she decided to resign from the positions of vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group from july 15 and no longer participate in management.

however, things soon changed. on july 22, wahaha announced on its official website that in order to ensure the company's stable and healthy development, after friendly consultation among shareholders, zong fuli decided to continue to perform the relevant management duties of wahaha group. and a month later, wahaha's business information finally changed, and zong fuli served as the company's chairman and general manager.

in fact, before taking the position of chairman of wahaha, zong fuli gradually took over the management of the wahaha empire from zong qinghou. in 2003, zong fuli served as a director of 14 companies under the wahaha group. from february 2024 to date, according to incomplete statistics, zong fuli has served in more than 120 positions. currently, she serves as the legal representative of 37 companies and has successively served as the legal representative of more than 20 companies including hangzhou wahaha e-commerce co., ltd.

wahaha, which has officially entered the zong fuli era, still faces many challenges.

data disclosed by wahaha group at the 2023 annual commendation conference on january 29 showed that wahaha's performance in 2023 was about 50 billion yuan, achieving double growth in revenue and profit. compared with wahaha's sales of 51.2 billion yuan in 2022 and 51.9 billion yuan in 2021, this result did not increase but declined slightly.nongfu spring, and master kong beverages, had sales of 42.6 billion yuan and 50.9 billion yuan respectively in 2023, up 28% and 5% year-on-year respectively. in particular, master kong beverages has surpassed wahaha in sales volume.

after taking over, zong fuli not only needs to maintain wahaha's position in the pure water market, but also create more fresh and popular products for this brand.

wahaha's current product matrix covers a comprehensive product network including packaged drinking water, protein drinks, carbonated drinks, tea drinks, fruit and vegetable juice drinks, coffee drinks, etc., and it launches many new products every year. however, whether it is an e-commerce platform or offline channels, wahaha's overall sales are still supported by the "old four" pure water, ad calcium milk, nutri-express and eight-treasure porridge.

at present, wahaha mostly adopts a follow-up strategy, and it can quickly follow up when a certain big single product becomes popular in the market. zong fuli proposed "new products and old products at the same time" at the 2024 sales work conference. this was also the last time she and her father appeared in public together.

take the sugar-free tea that has been very popular in the past two years as an example. at the above conference, wahaha announced that sugar-free tea is the focus of more than 20 new products this year, and launched a new pure tea series, including jasmine tea, zhengshan xiaozhong, dahongpao, and qinggan puer. wahaha also announced to increase its stocking efforts. in addition to pure water, new products such as sugar-free tea will also be laid out in offline channels. however, it seems that these new products are performing mediocrely and have not been able to stand out in the many tea beverage wars.

industry insiders interviewed by jiemian news revealed that wahaha has a stable staff and strict price control, but some distributors are not motivated enough and prefer to rely on classic old products rather than work hard on promoting new products. therefore, some new products face great resistance when they are promoted to new markets and channels. therefore, zong fuli needs to work hard on how to grasp the market trend, product innovation and motivate distributors to promote new products.

of course, half a year is not enough to judge the overall situation of wahaha in the zong fuli era.

on march 6 this year, zong fuli, general manager of wahaha group, appeared at the annual meeting of the china beverage industry association and delivered a speech. this was zong fuli's first public appearance since zong qinghou passed away on february 25. she said, "i am both a 'veteran' who has been exploring the industry for 20 years and a 'newcomer' who has taken over the baton of corporate management."

when zong fuli officially became the director of wahahachanghewhen zong fuli was appointed as the general manager, this business succession that attracted great attention in china was declared complete. next, people's expectations began to shift to whether wahaha, led by zong fuli, could create a new chapter in the legendary story of chinese private enterprises.