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the major reshuffle after zong fuli took office was expected, but whether zong fuli can lead wahaha to greater glory will take time to test.

the much-anticipated wahaha succession battle has finally come to an end.

recently, wahaha group has undergone major industrial and commercial changes. the company's late founder zong qinghou officially resigned as legal representative and chairman, and was succeeded by zong fuli, who also concurrently serves as the group's general manager. this means that zong fuli has taken full control of wahaha group.

this personnel change not only marks that wahaha group has entered a new stage of development, but also triggered extensive discussions in the industry on corporate governance, equity structure and future strategic direction.

zong fuli's road to succession

zong fuli's path to succession can be traced back many years ago, and her career has almost paralleled the development trajectory of the wahaha group.

the following are several important time points in zong fuli's succession process:

2004

zong fuli went abroad to study at the age of 14. after returning to china, she started with production management in the wahaha workshop and gradually delved into the group's business.

2018

zong fuli served as the director of the public relations department of wahaha group and began to emerge in the company's management.

2020

he also serves as deputy general manager of wahaha group sales company to further expand his influence within the group.

2021

he officially took up the position of vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group, preparing to take over the helm.

2024.7.15

zong fuli issued a "letter to all wahaha employees" and resigned due to internal doubts.

7.22

wahaha’s official website released a statement that after friendly negotiations among all shareholders, ms. zong fuli decided to continue to perform relevant management responsibilities of the wahaha group.

8.31

with the official change of industrial and commercial information, zong fuli officially became the legal representative, chairman and general manager of wahaha group.

board of directors reshuffle

at present, the equity structure of wahaha group is mainly composed of three parts: hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd. (holding 46% of the shares), zong fuli (holding 29.4% of the shares), and the hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association, holding 24.6% of the shares).

this structure reflects the organic combination of state-owned capital support, family business and employee interests.it is also a successful example of mixed-ownership reform of china's state-owned enterprises and has been running smoothly during the more than 20 years that zong qinghou has been alive.

however, after the death of mr. zong, his daughter zong fuli faced huge challenges in taking over. this year, there was even an incident in which zong fuli issued a resignation statement.

after taking office, zong fuli immediately "reorganized the grand council" and made a major replacement of the board of directors. a group of old wahaha employees retired, and many young faces entered the core decision-making level.

before this reorganization, the five members of wahaha’s board of directors were zong qinghou, wu jianlin, pan jiajie, yu qiangbing and zhang hui. except for zong qinghou, the other four were “old ministers” from zong qinghou’s era.

wu jianlinhe is one of the first batch of college students employed by wahaha. he joined the company in its early days and has been with wahaha for more than 30 years. prior to that, he served as a director, party secretary and executive vice general manager of wahaha group, making him the second-in-command of wahaha.

pan jiajiehe has been with wahaha for more than 30 years, starting from the most basic job in the supply department. after being valued by zong qinghou, he was promoted all the way to become the head of wahaha operations. previously, he served as a director and deputy general manager of wahaha group and was one of the core management of wahaha group.

yu qiangbinghe is a senior executive who worked his way up from the grassroots level of wahaha. he started his career in the northwest region of wahaha and was later promoted to the technical director of wahaha group. yu qiangbing is the technical leader of wahaha. he previously served as the director and technical director of wahaha group.

zhang huihe is the representative of the major shareholder shangcheng culture and tourism, and the bridge between shangcheng culture and tourism and wahaha group. zong qinghou and the major shareholder shangcheng capital have lived in harmony for so many years, and zhang hui has made an indelible contribution.

currently, all four of them are out and replaced by four new directors, namely ye yaqiong, hong chanchan, wang guoxiang and fei junwei. among these four, except wang guoxiang, who is also a former core executive of wahaha, the other three are young faces and there is not much public information about them.

ye yaqionghe appeared in a related report on wahaha during the hangzhou asian games in september 2023. his position was director of the office of the group marketing center. it seemed that his position was not high and he was relatively young.

hong chanchanshe does not hold any public executive position in the group, but only serves as a director and supervisor in some subsidiaries established by zong fuli and her mother shi youzhen. this is a "vest", but it also proves that she has a close relationship with zong fuli. this time, in addition to "joining the cabinet" as a group director, she also became the financial director.

wang guoxianghe previously served as wahaha's deputy general manager and was considered a member of the core executive team. this time he became a group director, which means he is being reused again.

and alsofei junwei, he is the representative of the largest shareholder, hangzhou shangcheng district, and replaced zhang hui as a director. as a shareholder representative, it seems that there is no need to change, so we speculate whether zhang hui participated in the "anti-li" storm before, so it is a bit awkward to continue to face zong fuli.

in addition to the reorganization of the board of directors, three wahaha supervisors were also replaced. jiang lijie, jia tun and guo hong were eliminated. these three people were also veteran employees of wahaha. their successors are kong qinming, yin xuqiong and xu simin.

zong fuli shows off her iron-fisted style

from this cabinet reshuffle, we can draw two conclusions: first, zong fuli settled the scores with all shareholders, especially shangcheng state-owned assets, and gained the "power of life and death", dismissing all the "opposition forces" and the "old team". in history, new monarchs have dismissed old ministers when they came to power. there is nothing new in history.

second, zong fuli is indeed "ruthless". as a successor of the younger generation of overseas returnees, her business ideas are certainly incompatible with those of the "old ministers", but she is unwilling to boil the frog in warm water and accommodate the "conservative forces", so she has to go all out and do drastic measures.

we believe that since zong fuli's promotion has been supported by key shareholders, the entire company can only obey, and this is legally impeccable.even the largest shareholder, shangcheng culture tourism, supports zong fuli, so what else can others say?

therefore, the major reshuffle after zong fuli took office was expected and inevitable. as for whether zong fuli can do a good job and lead wahaha to greater glory, it will take time to test. as major shareholders, we also need to give zong fuli time to prove herself.

remaining issues remain to be clarified

from the personnel level of wahaha, this issue has been resolved, but the legal issues surrounding wahaha and the affiliated companies behind zong fuli may still be a "mine" that may explode in the future.

the first is the issue of competition between zong fuli's "independent kingdom" hongsheng beverage group and wahaha。

hongsheng beverage group, founded in 2003, is also managed by zong fuli. as early as 2007, shortly after zong fuli returned from studying abroad, she took over the company at the age of 25.

data shows that hongsheng beverage group has invested in 53 companies, all of which have strong ties with wahaha group. the company operates the upstream beverage industry chain ingredient production, high-end equipment manufacturing, printing and packaging business, and provides solutions for the entire beverage production industry chain.

it can be said that hongsheng beverage group is the "private land" of the clan.

in addition, wahaha also has a large investment system, zhejiang qili investment co., ltd., which has invested in 28 companies, covering wahaha's branches in many parts of the country and some marketing, packaging, oem and other business companies.

both hongsheng group and zhejiang qili are companies closely related to wahaha. the difference is that hongzhen investment and hongsheng beverages are almost wholly owned by zong qinghou (family); while zhejiang qili is 60% owned by zong fuli and 40% by wahaha grassroots trade union joint committee.

so wahaha and zong fuli are a very strange combination.before this, wahaha’s major shareholders must have known that the zong family had an “independent kingdom” outside, but they did not raise any objections, so this may have been tacitly approved.

as shareholders, they need to get a return on their investment. if wahaha can grow and develop, the major shareholder shangcheng culture tourism may not say anything. but if wahaha does not do well, or all the profits are taken away by the "independent kingdom" of the zong family, can the major shareholder turn a blind eye?

therefore, the business model of zong fuli and wahaha has serious corporate governance flaws. the major shareholders may allow you to do it, but if they fall out one day, it will not just be a matter of losing money. you can imagine the consequences yourself.