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wahaha’s “succession drama” has ushered in a sequel.

on august 31, industrial and commercial information showed that the legal representative of wahaha group was officially changed from zong qinghou to zong fuli.zong fuli took over zong qinghou's 29.4% stake in wahaha group and served as the company's chairman and general manager.

along with the changes came a major change in management.

information shows that four original wahaha board members, zhang hui, wu jianlin, pan jiajie, and yu qiangbing, and three supervisors, jia tun, guo hong, and jiang lijie, have withdrawn. ye yaqiong, hong chanchan, fei junwei, and wang guoxiang have been added as directors, with wang guoxiang also serving as deputy general manager. kong qinming, yin xuqiong, and xu simin are supervisors, with kong qinming serving as chairman of the board of supervisors.

among the executives who have resigned, wu jianlin, pan jiajie and yu qiangbing are all veteran employees of wahaha.for example, wu jianlin was zong qinghou's right-hand man during his lifetime, pan jiajie worked at wahaha for 30 years, and zhang hui was the investor representative of the major shareholder, upper city capital.

on the other hand, among the new leaders, except for the state-owned assets representative fei junwei and the employee stock ownership platform representative wang guoxiang, the other two are regarded by the outside world as zong fuli's "direct descendants".

this is a reversal of the situation.you know, this succession was once full of turmoil. on july 18, 2024, a "letter to all employees of wahaha group" circulated on the internet, which mentioned that zong fuli "decided to resign as vice chairman and general manager of wahaha group and no longer participate in its management." interestingly, just four days later, the news changed to "zong fuli continued to perform her duties."

now, after such a "major reshuffle", many people believe that wahaha has officially entered the "zong fuli era".

but is zong fuli really stable? at present, there are at least three concerns.

first, it comes from employee dissatisfaction.

according to the china industrial news, a few days ago, dozens of employees of wahaha group initiated a class action lawsuit to protect their rights, which has entered the judicial process. several former employees and internal staff of wahaha group broke the news to china industrial news that because wahaha group recently required employees to re-sign labor contracts and buy back employee stock ownership shares at a lower price, the rights and interests of wahaha group employees were damaged, so they had to spontaneously set up a rights protection association and take up legal weapons to protect their own rights.

data shows thatthese litigation disputes focus on issues such as "requiring the declaration that the 2018 equity repurchase behavior is invalid", "requiring the employee shareholding association and zong fuli to provide further explanation and clarification on the 2018 employee equity repurchase behavior", and "questioning that xiaoshan shunfa's equity was disposed of for zero yuan".

details revealed by china industrial news show that there are two triggers for the above employee lawsuits.

one is that starting last month, employees of the wahaha group were asked to terminate their contracts with the wahaha group and sign labor contracts with the hongsheng beverage group, which is controlled by zong fuli and is outside the wahaha system. as a result, the "dry stock dividend" treatment enjoyed by employees in the wahaha group was cancelled.

another is that the wahaha group employee stock ownership association is suspected of disposing of xiaoshan shunfa’s equity at an unfair price. currently, xiaoshan shunfa’s equity has been transferred to zong fuli personally at zero yuan.

if zong fuli really violated the rights of employees during her rise to power, subsequent disputes are inevitable. as the matter ferments, many old incidents may also surface.

second, there is pressure from other shareholders.

before zong fuli took over the equity, the equity of wahaha group consisted of three parts:

hangzhou shangcheng district cultural, commercial and tourism investment holding group co., ltd. accounts for 46%; zong qinghou accounts for 29.4%; and the hangzhou wahaha group co., ltd. grassroots trade union joint committee (employee stock ownership association) accounts for 24.6%.

today, zong fuli has taken over the shares from zong qinghou, but the majority shareholder of wahaha group is still the hangzhou shangcheng district state-owned assets supervision and administration commission. although the hangzhou shangcheng district state-owned assets supervision and administration commission has always been tolerant, reflecting the state-owned assets structure, if there are some problems in the process of zong fuli's inheritance of shares, the majority shareholder will not sit idly by.

third, there are doubts about the loss of state-owned assets.

according to estimates based on comprehensive media reports, wahaha group's net profit over the past 35 years was approximately 100 billion yuan. however, as wahaha's largest shareholder, hangzhou shangcheng district state-owned assets received very little dividends.

at the same time, industrial and commercial information shows that zong fuli holds positions in 178 affiliated companies. most of these companies have hongsheng, hengfeng and other companies as parent shareholders, and these companies are actually controlled by zong fuli.according to media investigations, these upstream and downstream companies have no equity relationship with the wahaha group, but have a large number of off-balance sheet related transactions and also use the "wahaha" trademark.because of this, some people even reported zong fuli for "embezzling state-owned assets."

therefore, there are still many challenges ahead for zong fuli.