zong fuli takes over completely! is it "baby" haha or bitter haha? ｜hot finance
2024-09-02
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on august 29, the reporter noticed on tianyancha app that hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. had undergone industrial and commercial changes. zong qinghou resigned as the legal representative, and the positions of chairman and general manager were taken over 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 fei junwei, ye yaqiong, hong chanchan and others were added as directors, and wang guoxiang was appointed as director and deputy general manager.
zong qinghou passed away due to illness in february, and in july there was again rumors of zong fuli's "resignation", and there were rumors of "forcing the emperor to abdicate" and "internal strife"... wahaha has experienced several "huge shocks" this year. can this big change at the end of august really make wahaha happy?
the resignation letter turns into a declaration of war. has the outcome of the 100-day game been settled?
zong fuli was born in 1982. according to the information on wahaha's official website, she entered the food and beverage industry after returning to china from the united states in 2004. since 2007, she has served as the president of hongsheng beverage group and has independently led hongsheng to grow into one of the top 500 private enterprises in china. she has served as the director of the brand public relations department of wahaha group since april 2018 and has served as the deputy general manager of wahaha group sales company since march 2020. in december 2021, wahaha group officially announced that zong fuli would serve as the group's vice chairman and general manager.
on february 25 this year, wahaha group issued an obituary, announcing that zong qinghou, the founder and chairman of the group, died of illness at the age of 79. in the eyes of the outside world, it is not surprising that his daughter zong fuli inherited the wahaha business empire left by zong qinghou, but the various drastic reforms made by zong fuli during her tenure as a senior executive seemed to have affected the interests of many old employees, and various rumors of "internal fighting" were rampant.
previously, zong qinghou had also made a firm public statement that wahaha has "four no's", namely no loans, no listing, no vice president, and no real estate. however, zong fuli, who returned from studying abroad, is not opposed to listing and contacting the capital market. in an interview with the media, she said, "wahaha's listing is a very normal move," and said that any major development of an enterprise is operated through capital means, and only by combining with the capital market can it go further.
in the game between the old employees of wahaha and the new second generation of entrepreneurs, zong fuli showed her courage to try and seek innovation and change, and therefore received a lot of doubts. on july 8, a post titled "real hammer report on the embezzlement of wahaha group's huge state-owned assets by zong fuli, president of hongsheng group" was posted on the internet platform. the report letter claimed to be from "a former employee of hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd." and pointed out that zong fuli had sidelined the old wahaha employees, replaced the original management with hongsheng personnel, directly outsourced production through hongsheng group, invested in factories with overseas investment companies, and adjusted procurement routes, saying that it was for the purpose of transferring assets. with this report letter that went viral, the contradictions between wahaha shareholders were made public.
public data shows that among the shareholders of hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd., hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd. holds 46% of the shares, zong qinghou holds 29.4% of the shares, the hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association) holds 24.6% of the shares, and shangcheng district state-owned capital operation group co., ltd. is 100% controlled by the district finance bureau. it can be seen that wahaha has a state-owned background, and the dispersed shareholding structure makes it difficult for zong fuli to coordinate the interests of multiple parties and form a common goal alone after her father's death.
soon after, a "letter to all employees of wahaha group" signed by zong fuli began to circulate on the internet. the letter mentioned that some shareholders of wahaha group questioned the rationality of zong fuli's management of wahaha group since the death of chairman zong qinghou, making it impossible for zong fuli to continue to perform her management responsibilities for wahaha group and its holding companies. zong fuli decided to resign from the positions of vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group from now on and no longer participate in its management.
zong qinghou's younger brother zong zehou even publicly stated in his circle of friends: "it's a good thing."
while the outside world was speculating on the direction of wahaha’s internal disputes, on the evening of july 22, wahaha’s official website issued a statement: in order to ensure the company’s stable and healthy development, after friendly consultation among shareholders, ms. zong fuli decided to continue to perform relevant management responsibilities of the wahaha group.
the palace fight won? three of the five new board members are "li"
from this industrial and commercial change, we can see that the four veterans of wahaha, wu jianlin, pan jiajie, yu qiangbing and zhang hui, have all left. the new directors are all very young, and zong fuli seems to be making drastic reforms.
ye yaqiong is now the director of the group's government affairs center. according to an official tweet released by wahaha in 2021, she was only the party secretary of a sales company three years ago. in 2023, ye yaqiong was promoted to director of the group's marketing center office. in just one year, she was promoted to the second-ranked director of the board of directors. her promotion speed can be described as rocketing.
fei junwei is the representative of hangzhou shangcheng district culture, commerce and tourism investment holding group co., ltd. and is the largest shareholder in name only. tianyancha shows that fei junwei is now the second-in-command of the group company, basically replacing zhang hui who withdrew from the board this time, but the largest shareholder only holds one seat, which almost confirms the support of shangcheng district culture, commerce and tourism, which has a state-owned background, for zong fuli.
hong chanchan is the head of the finance department of hongsheng beverage group, which is managed by zong fuli. she has been helping zong fuli manage money. the last person, wang guoxiang, is an old subordinate of zong qinghou. he also serves as the deputy general manager of the group and may represent the interests of old employees.
taking the overall situation as the "goal"? where is the second generation taking over?
since the beginning of this year, zong fuli's job changes in wahaha group's companies have been very frequent. according to tianyancha, from january to august 31, 2024, there were 137 pieces of information about zong fuli's job changes.
as early as 2007, when zong qinghou spun off hangzhou hongsheng beverage company, which mainly engaged in food and beverage production and processing, to his daughter zong fuli for independent operation and gradually gave her independent power, zong fuli's journey as the second-generation successor had already begun.
in 2007 and 2012, hongsheng beverage group established the fuli charity foundation and zhejiang university fuli food research institute respectively.
in july 2016, zong fuli launched a fruit and vegetable juice drink product named "kellyone" after her english name "kelly". the launch of this high-end customized drink shows that zong fuli's management style is very different from that of her father. wahaha's route is "people-friendly drinks", while kellyone takes the high-end, trendy, internet+ route.
in the following years, zong fuli changed her spokesperson, entered the league of legends, douluo continent, bilibili, trendy toys, movies and other circles, and sought opportunities in the capital market. these attempts made it difficult for wahaha's old employees to accept them for a while.
as the founder, zong qinghou has great influence, but this influence has become zong fuli's armor and even her burden with the death of his father. according to the alibaba asset platform, since 2024, zhejiang wahaha industrial co., ltd. has had at least dozens of auctions of natural person shares, 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. it is obvious that after zong qinghou's death, many shareholders questioned the development direction of wahaha.
after months of ups and downs this year, with the return in july and the dust settling in august, zong fuli's actions and decision-making ability have made investors and industry insiders full of expectations for wahaha. this succession not only means the redistribution of power, but also shows her clear direction for the future of the company. zong fuli once said: "when you have autonomy over money, you have the right to decide what you do." from this change, we can also see that after 20 years of succession, wahaha under zong fuli's leadership will enter a new stage from now on, and the industry is waiting to see.
text｜reporter liao mengjun
