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in more than a month, zong fuli "retreat to advance", and the battle for control of wahaha has seen a plot reversal

text｜li ying, special contributor to caijing, and fu jiajia, intern

editor: yu le

on august 31, the news that "zong fuli took over the wahaha group" spread like wildfire.

according to qichacha information, hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes. zong fuli took over the shares held by her father zong qinghou and served as the legal representative, chairman and general manager of wahaha. the company's top management also made a series of personnel adjustments. many "old officials" such as wu jianlin, pan jiajie, and yu qiangbing withdrew from the positions of directors and supervisors.

in the six months between zong qinghou's death and zong fuli's full takeover of wahaha, the ownership of wahaha has always been the focus of discussion outside the company, and is considered to be "zong qinghou's posthumous mystery." on july 15, zong fuli's "resignation letter" made the internal conflicts among shareholders public. this change in industrial and commercial information shows that zong fuli finally won the battle for control of the company.

when zong qinghou was alive, the equity structure of wahaha was as follows: hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd. held 46% of the shares, zong qinghou held 29.4% of the shares, and the hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association) held 24.6% of the shares. at the same time, zong qinghou and the employee stock ownership association became a concerted action person, thus becoming the actual controller of the company.

after zong qinghou passed away on february 25, his shareholdings remained unchanged for more than half a year. at that time, an economist who wished to remain anonymous told us that there were three variables in wahaha's equity structure: first, zong fuli inherited zong qinghou's shares, but did not become a concerted actor with the employee shareholding association, and the three parties were not bound to each other, forming a tripartite situation; second, the employee shareholding association and state-owned assets became concerted actors, and wahaha became a state-controlled enterprise; third, zong fuli did not completely inherit zong qinghou's shares, and the equity structure became more dispersed.

from the latest situation, zong fuli has completely inherited zong qinghou's shares, but it is still unknown whether she has become a concerted action person with the employees' shareholding. we asked wahaha for confirmation on this issue, but they did not respond.on qichacha, zong fuli is labeled as "actual controller" and "beneficial owner." actual controllers usually have a dominant influence on a company and can actually control the company's behavior.

wahaha's equity structure; source: qichacha

succession turmoil ends

in more than a month, under the public's attention, the battle for control of wahaha has seen a plot twist.

on july 15, a letter signed by "zong fuli" to all employees of wahaha group was widely circulated online. the letter stated: "recently, the people's government of shangcheng district, hangzhou city and some shareholders of hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. ('wahaha group') have questioned the rationality of my management of wahaha group since the death of chairman zong qinghou, which has made it impossible for me to continue to perform my management responsibilities for wahaha group and its holding companies. therefore, i have decided to resign from the positions of vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group from today and will no longer participate in its management."

the letter also stated that "the above-mentioned resignation letters have been delivered to hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. and all its shareholders, and the relevant parties are urged to take a responsible attitude and re-elect the general manager in a timely manner in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the articles of association and have him perform management duties to ensure the normal operation of wahaha group and safeguard the common interests of wahaha group, customers and all employees in accordance with the law."

a few days after the incident fermented, on july 22, wahaha’s official website issued a statement saying that in order to ensure the company’s stable and healthy development, after friendly consultation among all shareholders, ms. zong fuli decided to continue to perform the relevant management responsibilities of the wahaha group.

on december 9, 2021, zong fuli began to serve as the vice chairman and general manager of the group company, responsible for the management of daily work. at that time, this appointment was interpreted by the outside world as zong qinghou's intention to gradually hand over power to the next generation of successors. but when zong qinghou passed away, just when everyone thought that zong fuli would take over as the new generation of wahaha's power holder, things did not go so smoothly.

now, with zong fuli taking over as chairman, the succession storm has finally come to an end.

our own people enter

judging from the series of personnel changes that occurred along with zong fuli's appointment, the four directors who resigned - wu jianlin, pan jiajie, yu qiangbing and zhang hui, the first three are all experienced old employees of wahaha who have worked their way up from the grassroots level to the management level.

among them, wu jianlin is one of the first batch of college students of wahaha. he joined the company in its early days and has been with wahaha for more than 30 years. he has served as a group director, party secretary and executive deputy general manager. pan jiajie has also been with wahaha for more than 30 years. he started from the most basic supply department and was promoted to become the head of wahaha operations. he previously served as a director and deputy general manager of wahaha group. yu qiangbing started in the northwest region of wahaha and was later promoted to the technical director of wahaha group. zhang hui is a representative from the major shareholder shangcheng culture and tourism, and is a bridge between shangcheng culture and tourism and wahaha group.

among the adjusted board team, there is still a representative of shangcheng culture and tourism’s investors - fei junwei, who is the legal representative and general manager of hangzhou shangcheng culture, commerce and tourism development co., ltd.

four new directors, ye yaqiong, hong chanchan, wang guoxiang, and fei junwei, and three new supervisors, kong qinming, yin xuqiong, and xu simin, were added this time. according to information from qichacha, the business resumes of the seven new people are very simple, and four of them have only worked for wahaha group.

according to tianyancha, qichacha and other public information, ye yaqiong is currently the director of the government affairs center of wahaha group. prior to this, she had experienced two changes: in 2021, she was the party branch secretary of the sales company under wahaha group, and in 2023, she was promoted to the director of the group marketing center office. zong fuli has devoted a lot of effort to marketing in the past few years. hong chanchan is the director of the finance department of hongsheng beverage group, which is entirely zong fuli's own company.

wang guoxiang is an old servant who followed zong qinghou to build the empire. he has served as the deputy general manager of wahaha group in recent years. it is generally believed that he represents the old shareholders of wahaha through the employee stock ownership platform.

phoenix.com reported in july that many core members of wahaha group no longer hold important positions, and have been replaced by key members of hongsheng beverage group, which is controlled by zong fuli. among them, zhu lidan, yan xuefeng and ding xiujuan are three key figures, all of whom came from hongsheng, which is controlled by zong fuli.

zong fuli's stage

in the recent incident of zong fuli's resignation, according to reports from cover news, beijing business daily and other media, zong qinghou's younger brother and zong fuli's uncle zong zehou once expressed his views in his personal wechat circle of friends, questioning zong fuli's drastic reform measures.

"zong fuli's biggest problem is that when she succeeded wahaha, she should not have considered how to expand the scale, how to make money, and how to make drastic changes to the status quo. she should first consider how to do good things, do charity, and make everyone recognize you. in this process, you can find many problems and many talents, and naturally make most people recognize your succession. but she did the opposite, firing on all cylinders and showing her edge, which is in line with the old saying: hard things break easily."

during her years of hard work in the beverage industry, zong fuli's personal style has gradually become clear. in the eyes of many people, she is a strong woman who acts decisively and is committed to reform.

in 2004, zong fuli returned from studying abroad and officially joined the wahaha group. she started as the deputy director of the xiaoshan no. 2 base management committee and entered the wahaha production management system. since 2007, she has independently managed hongsheng beverage group, which was once a subsidiary of wahaha's processing business. after zong fuli joined, she made drastic resource integration for hongsheng, from acquiring land, purchasing equipment, building teams, establishing factories, to building factories across the country. after 2018, hongsheng opened up the entire chain of the food and beverage industry, including food source ingredient research and development, high-end equipment manufacturing, beverage filling production, packaging printing, logistics warehousing, and brand marketing.

according to the data released by the 2022 zhejiang top 100 manufacturing enterprises list, hongsheng beverage group had operating income of 10.42 billion yuan and net profit of 1.47 billion yuan in 2022.

in april 2018, zong fuli volunteered to become the head of the brand public relations department of wahaha group and began to participate more deeply in the core management of wahaha. she led the promotion of wahaha's brand upgrade and rejuvenation, promoted wahaha's brand upgrade through the "user value + circle marketing + super ip" approach, and promoted brand rejuvenation through diversified marketing strategies. she actively promoted cross-border cooperation between wahaha and other brands and promoted product innovation, such as joint products with zhong xue gao, pop mart, league of legends and other brands to attract young consumers.

after zong fuli took up the position of vice chairman and general manager of the group company in december 2021, her personal touch has increasingly penetrated into the management and operations of wahaha, promoting innovation and reform in many aspects, such as strengthening e-commerce channels, adjusting sales models, launching new products such as sugar-free and low-sugar beverages, and refreshing brand packaging and marketing strategies.

today, zong fuli has a bigger stage and more room to display her talents, but she also faces considerable challenges.

after zong qinghou's death, wahaha's market performance experienced significant fluctuations. in the early stage, the sales of wahaha products surged in the short term due to the public sentiment aroused by zong qinghou's death. however, this emotion-driven sales growth did not last long.

in the current domestic beverage market, in addition to bottled water giants such as nongfu spring and master kong, there are also emerging brands such as yuanqi forest, each of which has a strong competitive market advantage. after the baton of wahaha was handed over to zong fuli, it is still unknown where this post-80s helmsman will lead the giant ship of wahaha.