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author: chen zexuan

image source: tuchong creative

after nearly twenty years of corporate inheritance, wahaha has officially entered the "zong fuli era".

a reporter from the times weekly learned from the tianyancha platform that on august 29, hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "wahaha") underwent industrial and commercial changes. zong fuli replaced the deceased zong qinghou and became the legal representative, chairman, and general manager of wahaha.

at the same time, there were personnel changes in wahaha's senior management team. zhang hui, wu jianlin and other senior executives resigned from their positions as directors and supervisors, and ye yaqiong, fei junwei and others were added as directors, while wang guoxiang was appointed as director and deputy general manager.

equity penetration shows that zong qinghou has withdrawn from the ranks of shareholders. wahaha is now jointly held by three shareholders: zong fuli, hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd., and wahaha grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association). among them, zong fuli holds 29.4% of the shares, which is consistent with zong qinghou's previous shareholding ratio. she is the actual controller and beneficial owner of wahaha.

on february 25 this year, zong qinghou, the founder and chairman of wahaha, died of illness at the age of 79. since then, zong qinghou's daughter zong fuli, who has served as wahaha's vice chairman and general manager since 2021, has successively taken over positions in wahaha-related companies.

wahaha, which is in the process of corporate inheritance, was caught up in the turmoil of the second generation resignation nearly five months after the death of its founder zong qinghou. with the release of wahaha's "statement", the incident was quickly settled.

today, zong fuli has become the actual controller and beneficial owner of wahaha, which means that this "second generation" who is already in her forties has officially ushered in her own era in wahaha after nearly twenty years of succession.

entrepreneurial successor, zong fuli turned the foundry into a fortune 500 company

zong fuli was just a graduate in her early twenties when she first joined wahaha. in 2004, zong fuli, who had graduated from an american university with a major in international business, returned to china and came to a production workshop of wahaha group in xiaoshan for front-line training. the following year, zong fuli became the deputy director of the management committee of wahaha xiaoshan no. 2 base, and later served as the general manager of wahaha children's wear and kaqianna daily cosmetics co., ltd.

at that time, wahaha was in a period of rapid growth. in 2003, wahaha's operating income exceeded 10 billion yuan, becoming the world's fifth largest beverage manufacturer, and set the goal of "sales exceeding 20 billion yuan in 3-5 years, and sales reaching 100 billion yuan in 5-10 years". in 2005, wahaha launched a milk product called nutri-express, and successfully made it another super single product after ad calcium milk in the next few years.

initially, zong fuli mainly gained experience in various business sectors of wahaha. in 2007, the 25-year-old zong fuli became the president of hongsheng beverage group, which was established in 2003 and is a company that provides solutions for the entire beverage production industry chain and undertakes the oem business of some wahaha products.

zong fuli's entrepreneurial journey began with a production line. starting from a small production line in xiaoshan, hangzhou, zong fuli gradually developed hongsheng beverage group into a professional beverage company with an annual revenue of 10 billion yuan.

at that time, most of the peers purchased molds from abroad, and had to face problems such as high costs and unstable prices. in order to seize the initiative, zong fuli established songyuan machinery in 2007, responsible for professional bottle making, cap making, mold manufacturing and related food and beverage equipment manufacturing. two years later, the company was able to achieve independent research and development and localized beverage packaging molds such as pet bottles and bottle caps.

hongsheng beverage is zong fuli's "exclusive territory", and all decisions are mainly made by her. as the "laboratory" for zong fuli's entrepreneurship, zong qinghou fully lets her go and rarely asks about hongsheng's business situation.

as it turned out, zong fuli lived up to zong qinghou's trust. under her leadership, hongsheng beverage group gradually developed into a comprehensive beverage group with 20 bases, more than 40 subsidiaries and more than 100 production lines across the country, and was repeatedly selected as one of the top 500 private enterprises in china and the top 500 private manufacturing enterprises in china.

in the business world, zong fuli has become synonymous with female entrepreneurs and second-generation entrepreneurs. in the "china business women ranking" released by forbes china in 2014, zong fuli was once again on the list, ranking eighth.

under the leadership of zong fuli, hongsheng beverage tried brand incubation and launched the fruit and vegetable juice brand "kellyone" targeting the high-end market in 2016, but the market response was mediocre. this was one of zong fuli's explorations in the field of product rejuvenation.

at the same time, after reaching 78.2 billion yuan in revenue in 2013, wahaha entered a downward cycle, and by 2017, its annual revenue was less than 50 billion yuan. with the rise of internet e-commerce and the emergence of new consumer brands, wahaha, which already had a history of 30 years, needed more fresh blood.

having accumulated rich experience in the upstream industrial chain, zong fuli volunteered to serve as the director of wahaha's brand public relations department in 2018, and began to emerge in front of more public. wahaha also launched a series of innovative marketing activities, including the launch of ad calcium milk mooncakes and rice dumplings; nutri-express makeup palette; flavored yogurt in collaboration with "douluo dalu"; and collaboration with zhong xuegao; and replaced the spokesperson who had cooperated for 20 years.

in 2021, wahaha's revenue returned to over 50 billion yuan, reaching 51.915 billion yuan. at the end of the year, zong fuli officially took over as vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group and took over sales work.

the "resignation storm" was settled smoothly, and wahaha entered the "zong fuli era"

zong qinghou has always been the "spiritual leader" of wahaha. in 2011, zong qinghou and zong fuli participated in a program on cctv's financial channel. the host asked zong qinghou, "what does wahaha plus zong fuli equal?" zong qinghou replied, "it equals a stronger wahaha." the host then asked zong fuli, "what does wahaha minus zong qinghou equal?" zong fuli replied, "it equals zero."

however, after years of entrepreneurial inheritance, zong fuli has advanced all the way and accumulated experience in various aspects from production and manufacturing, brand marketing to sales. she has successfully transformed from an ignorant "second generation" to the helmsman of a long-established leading enterprise.

zong fuli's achievements in running hongsheng beverages have also been recognized by her father. in 2021, zong qinghou said in an exclusive interview with "china entrepreneur" that "she (zong fuli) is good enough. the profit of hongsheng beverages is higher than that of wahaha, reaching 30%."

in the same year, zong fuli was interviewed by xiaoshan daily. she was asked, "your father is an entrepreneur, and you are also a young entrepreneur now. if what you do is recognized by your father, will it be important to you?" zong fuli's answer was "not now." she admitted that it might have been important before, but "because i now have enough confidence and know what i want to do. i think i should have my own path and trajectory in life, but i have to try it myself to know."

however, nearly five months after the death of wahaha founder zong qinghou, wahaha, which is in the process of corporate inheritance, suddenly encountered changes, and zong fuli also faced the biggest storm in her nearly 20 years at wahaha.

in mid-july, a letter titled "a letter to all employees of wahaha group" was circulated on the internet. the letter was published on july 15 and signed by zong fuli. the content of the letter showed that because the shangcheng district people's government of hangzhou and some shareholders of wahaha group questioned the rationality of her management of the group after zong qinghou's death, zong fuli decided to resign from the positions of vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group from that day on and no longer participate in the management of the group.

although zong fuli's resignation was unexpected in the eyes of the outside world, many people familiar with wahaha believe that the complex equity structure behind wahaha is the main cause of this series of events.

judging from the proportion of equity alone, the largest shareholder of wahaha group is undoubtedly hangzhou shangcheng state-owned assets. however, wahaha's equity structure is not a simple state-owned shareholding, but a highly complex distributed equity structure.

as the founder, zong qinghou once held 24.6% of the shares of wahaha employee stock ownership association for a long time, and the combined equity of both parties reached 54%. in addition, with the blessing of leadership charm, he has absolute say.

zong qinghou's huge influence is both a shield and a burden for zong fuli. zong qinghou has personal influence and appeal, which the young zong fuli cannot inherit. he has built a huge network of contacts in the business world, and these intangible assets cannot be continued without loss in the inheritance of the enterprise. these assets that belong only to zong qinghou have declined with his death. at the same time, wahaha's dispersed equity structure makes it difficult for zong fuli to coordinate the interests of multiple parties and form a common goal after her father's death.

after zong qinghou's death, a large number of wahaha shares were auctioned on alibaba's auction platform. alibaba's asset platform shows that since 2024, zhejiang wahaha industrial co., ltd.'s natural person shares have been auctioned at least dozens of times, with each auction involving shares ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of shares, and prices ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, but most of them ended in failure.

the "resignation storm" gradually subsided with the release of the wahaha group's "statement". on the evening of july 22, the wahaha group said in the "statement" that in order to ensure the company's stable and healthy development, after friendly consultation among shareholders, ms. zong fuli decided to continue to perform the relevant management responsibilities of the wahaha group. wahaha also expressed its gratitude for the recent attention from all walks of life and the media, and apologized for occupying media resources.

it is worth noting that this statement is signed by zong fuli and stamped with the seal of the wahaha group.

zong fuli once said: "only when you have autonomy over money can you have the right to decide what you do." now, zong fuli has taken over the 29.4% shares left by zong qinghou and has become the actual controller and beneficial owner of wahaha. zong fuli's appointment means that this "second generation" who is already in her forties has officially ushered in her own era in wahaha after nearly twenty years of succession.