At 10:30 on February 25, 2024, Wahaha lost its "big parent" Zong Qinghou forever. A veteran employee who has worked in Wahaha for more than 20 years wrote sadly: "The most respectable parent, Mr. Zong, you go all the way!" At the age of 42, he started from a school-run factory and built China's largest beverage company step by step, and this 79-year-old man who paved his life with the historical opportunity of reform and opening up has many labels. He is not only the "first-generation private entrepreneur" who bravely stands at the head of the tide, but also the "big parent" respected by employees, the "richest man in Chinese mainland" who has won the Forbes list three times, and the "good father" who patiently cultivates his daughter's growth. The Si people are gone, but the spirit lives on. Zong Qinghou is regarded as a typical representative of the Chinese generation of entrepreneurs. In the changes of the times brought about by the reform and opening up, they are bold and careful, have a keen sense of market smell, and at the same time have firm beliefs and personal efforts; They pursue industry to serve the country and walk with the times, while not forgetting to give back to the society and promote common prosperity. "I don't want Wahaha to bring me anything, it has made me realize the value of my life. I want to do Wahaha to the end for the rest of my life, no ifs. Zong Qinghou fulfilled his promise. Keyword 1: school-run factoryZong Qinghou was born in Hangzhou in 1945, due to the family's financial constraints, in 1961 he stepped into the society to make money to subsidize the family, once used the idle equipment at home to make fried rice, began to show business acumen. 
In 2010, Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, met customers in the office In 1978, the 33-year-old Zong Qinghou replaced his retired mother and entered the carton factory run by the Workers' and Peasants' School, selling soda and student stationery to make a living, once again showing his business talent. After that, Zong Qinghou helped the school-run factory to open two enterprises, an electric meter factory and an electric fan factory. In Zong Qinghou's autobiography, he believes that these grassroots struggles on the front line of business have allowed him to understand the Chinese market and laid the foundation for the birth of Wahaha later. In 1987, the Education Bureau of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou City established a school-run enterprise distribution department, and Zong Qinghou borrowed 140,000 yuan to contract this school-run enterprise that had been losing money year after year. In the first year of his tenure, Zong Qinghou made the profit of the distribution department reach 2220,000 yuan, far exceeding the amount of the "military order" of "annual profit of 100,000 yuan". In July of the same year, he set up Hangzhou Baoling Children's Nutrition Food Factory to process pollen oral liquid for Hangzhou Baoling Company, and earned more than one million yuan the following year. In 1988, Zong Qinghou learned that Zhu Shoumin, a professor of nutrition at Zhejiang Medical University, had developed a children's nutrition solution, and after many visits, he found the formula and developed the first nutritional product for children to drink, and formulated an advertising slogan for it: "After drinking Wahaha, eating is fragrant." In 1989, "Hangzhou Baoling Children's Nutrition Food Factory" was changed to "Hangzhou Wahaha Nutrition Food Factory", and the following year, the food factory achieved sales revenue of more than 98 million yuan. With the increase in the market share of Wahaha children's nutrition solution, the school-run factory began to restrict its development. In 1991, Zong Qinghou merged the old state-owned factory Hangzhou Canning Factory with more than 80 million yuan, obtained a factory building of 60,000 square meters, and also received debts of more than 67 million yuan and more than 2,200 workers. With his leadership, in just 28 days, the canning factory set up a new production line. In just 100 days, the canning factory, which has an annual loss of 40 million, turned losses into profits. Zong Qinghou attributed the acquisition of the Hangzhou canning factory to a key step taken by Wahaha. Keyword 2: AD calcium milkWahaha AD calcium milk is the "standard" of many people's childhood, but in fact, this product is not Wahaha's first creation, but imitates Robust's calcium milk at that time. In the era when most people could not drink milk, Robust's milk launched in 1989 was loved by the public under the banner of the first health care solution. In 1996, a new generation of Robust's calcium milk was launched, which was also the first milk drink in Chinese mainland. But then Robust was "hidden" after being acquired by Danone, and Wahaha took advantage of the trend to launch AD calcium milk. Zong Qinghou once said frankly in 2007, "When we don't have strength, we follow up on innovation and do some low-level innovation" "Robust's calcium milk is produced, and we produce AD calcium milk, which is based on Robust's calcium milk with vitamin A." In 2013, Wahaha AD calcium milk sales reached its peak, becoming a major single product with a revenue of 10 billion yuan, and also a childhood memory of a generation. 
The "childhood memories" of a generation, Wahaha Ad Calcium Milk, Ad Calcium Milk, gave Wahaha great inspiration. Since then, the launch of cola, black tea, green tea, herbal tea, milk tea, functional drinks, kvass and other products has adopted this path - borrowing from the popular products in the market and launching them on the market with a little modification. In the initial stage of development of the domestic FMCG market, this kind of follow-up innovation can easily become a hit product with the help of advertising and channels. However, with the increasing abundance of market supply, the gradual accessibility of online and offline channels, and the fierce competition of products, independent research and development innovation is becoming more and more important. Although Wahaha releases dozens of new products every year, in the market, Wahaha's products on the shelves are basically old products, and it is difficult for new products to occupy the mainstream. This confusion has been going on with Wahaha for several years, and the only answer is that Wahaha is "old". The change in operating income data bears witness to this process. From the perspective of performance, in 2003, Wahaha's operating income exceeded 10 billion yuan; In 2010, the operating income increased fourfold, exceeding 50 billion yuan, at that time Zong Qinghou proposed to "create another Wahaha", and strive to achieve annual sales revenue of 100 billion yuan within 3 years. However, in 2013, Wahaha's operating income reached its peak of 782800 million yuan, and then basically hovered in the range of 45 billion to 50 billion yuan. Although Wahaha's operating income is still firmly in the top position in China, it is a little far from its peak. Keyword 3: joint sales bodyWahaha was once regarded as the representative of the national drink, and a few decades ago, when logistics was not so developed and smooth, Wahaha almost spread all over the national market. To this day, this is still an amazing phenomenon in the FMCG industry. Ding Lei, the former richest man from NetEase, also asked Zong Qinghou for advice, "How to sell Wahaha all over the country." This has to mention the unique distribution system created by Zong Qinghou in 1994 - "joint sales body". This system jumps out of the traditional path of "delivery-sales-payment" in the FMCG industry, and deeply binds enterprises and distributors into a community of interests through "payment first and delivery later", "I am responsible for the goods that cannot be sold" and "year-end rebate". The core of the joint sales system is that manufacturers and sellers realize risk sharing and benefit sharing, which greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm of dealers, and this model is even regarded as a classic business case by Harvard Business School in the United States. "It can become a big product in a few months, and the advertising is bombarded, and the channel will definitely open the market. In an interview, Zong Qinghou once mentioned the important role of channels. With the help of the joint sales body, in 2013, Wahaha's revenue rushed to 78.3 billion yuan. With a net worth of $11.6 billion, Zong Qinghou was named the richest man on the Forbes list of the richest Chinese. Wahaha is good at spreading to capillary-level markets such as towns and rural areas, but with the acceleration of urbanization and the flow of population to cities, Zong Qinghou is also keenly aware that the industry has changed. In an interview, he said, "Now it is the other way around, the population is concentrated in the cities, and the products will only penetrate into the countryside after they are accepted in the cities." We need to make a little move in the first- and second-tier markets. "It's just that now, the task of how to do a good job in the first- and second-tier markets can only be completed by Zong Fuli. Keyword four: **Zong Fuli (Kelly) is the only daughter of Zong Qinghou, who grew up with Wahaha, and is also affectionately called "Miss" by Wahaha's old employees, in Zong Fuli's childhood memories, in addition to school, she is in the six-story small gray building at No. 160 Qingtai Street, which was founded by Wahaha. When she was in junior high school, Zong Fuli went abroad to study, and returned to China in 2004 to participate in Wahaha's daily work. In the first three years after returning to China, Zong Fuli has been working in the production business. In 2007, after reaching a tacit understanding with Zong Qinghou that "the father doesn't ask, the daughter doesn't ask for help", Zong Fuli began to start an internal business and create Hongsheng Beverage Group. In three years, Hongsheng Beverage has completed the upstream and downstream industrial layout of food source research and development, high-end equipment, printing and packaging, focusing on beverage production. In 2016, Zong Fuli began to get involved in brand development and launched "Kellyone" high-end customized fruit and vegetable juice and other products. As a returnee, Zong Fuli is used to being called Kelly, and she has both the shadow of Zong Qinghou's hands-on "workaholic" and the straightforwardness of a young generation of business leaders. There are many "amazing" words in public, such as, "I prefer Nongfu Spring" and "Wang Leehom is too old". But from the perspective of business development, Zong Qinghou has expressed his satisfaction with Zong Fuli's work on many occasions. 
On October 11, 2019, in Hangzhou, Zong Qinghou celebrated his birthday in advance, and the father and daughter were rarely in the same frame. In China's private enterprises, ** is an unavoidable topic, and Zong Qing's practice of bowing to the future has also attracted much attention to Wahaha's. As early as 2019, Zong Qinghou said in an interview with Forbes China that if his daughter was willing, he would hand over the baton to her. If she is not willing to accept it, then she will train professional managers to **. In the 20 years since returning to China, Zong Fuli has experienced many positions in Wahaha, from Xiaoshan No. 2 Base Management Committee, Hongsheng Beverage Group, Import and Export Company, Brand Public Relations Department, and finally became the company's vice chairman and general manager at the end of 2021, responsible for daily work. This also means that Wahaha has entered the "Zong Fuli era", although the appointment announcement of that year still reads, "Zong Fuli will work with the company's chairman Zong Qinghou to inject evergreen vitality into Wahaha's steady development." ”Keyword five: patriarchFrom the day he founded Wahaha to the last moment of his life, Zong Qinghou has been doing it himself, practicing his former statement - "I want to do Wahaha to the end for the rest of my life". As the patriarch of Wahaha, he is used to asking questions about big and small things. It was not until 2016 that three deputy general managers were promoted. In the past nearly 30 years, Zong Qinghou was both chairman and general manager, and he was not worthy of secretary or vice president. On social **, some people often send out that they meet Zong Qinghou alone on a plane or train**. Wahaha's employees are also accustomed to listening to commands. An employee revealed, "Each new product of Wahaha will make a different sugar content, so that Zong Qinghou can taste and clap the board." If there are 10 points for the decision, then the boss's opinion accounts for 5 points. Zong Qinghou once denied in an interview the question of "management methods", saying that it was "unrealistic". At the same time, he believes that the enterprise does not have "** is not good, a plate of scattered sand." With the changes in the development of enterprises, Zong Qinghou, who is accustomed to doing things himself, also began to realize that he should slowly delegate power. "After so many years, they have relied on me, how can I say how they do it, but now that I am older, it is impossible to take care of all aspects, I have to work independently, work creatively, and gradually decentralize, if I never ask them to do it, I will always do it myself, then I can't do it. But in fact, after more than 30 years at the helm of Wahaha, it is difficult for Zong Qinghou to completely let go,** the report said, "When he was in the office, he was the first to go to work and the last to get off work, and he insisted on visiting the market research when he was in his seventies." On another level, the patriarch showed a loving face to his employees. "Every Chinese New Year, from middle-level cadres to ordinary employees, we have to get together for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and red envelopes, and the atmosphere is very good. An employee introduced to **. Under the "family culture", Zong Qinghou will also solve the problem of employee housing as an important task, not only to provide employees with free dormitories covering all bases across the country, free of water and electricity, but also to implement a stepped housing project covering all employees to solve the problem of employee settlement. Keyword six: listingAfter Nongfu Spring went public, its founder, Zhong Sui, quickly became the richest man in China, and selling water to get rich refreshed the public's perception. In the listing prospectus, Nongfu Spring detailed the competition pattern of the top 10 in China's soft drink market industry in 2019, of which the first place A is a beverage company founded in the United States in 1982, and the second place B is a non-listed company founded in Hangzhou, China in 1987, and Nongfu Spring ranks fourth in terms of scale. According to the relevant information, the market speculates that the second place is Wahaha. According to the list of "2023 China's Top 500 Private Enterprises" released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Wahaha's sales performance in 2022 reached 51.2 billion yuan. In 2022, Nongfu Spring's total income will be about 3323.9 billion yuan. When will Wahaha be listed? This is a question that has been discussed for decades. In fact, Wahaha has operated the listing for a long time. But after five years of tossing and turning, I have experienced various twists and turns. In 1997, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave feedback on Wahaha's listing materials, with a total of 53 problems in seven categories, including unauthorized expansion of the subscription scope of internal employee shares, unclear main business, and so on. After that, Zong Qinghou's attitude of "not going public" was extremely firm. But as Zong Fuli gradually became involved in her daily work, Wahaha gradually loosened up on the issue of listing. In 2017, Zong Fuli acquired China Candy (08182.), a Hong Kong GEM companyHK) and a subsequent company statement issued by Zong Fuli said it was "deeply regrettable" but called it "a positive and constructive exploration". In November 2017, at Wahaha's 30th anniversary celebration, Zong Qinghou changed his stance on listing for the first time: "After listing, it can accelerate the development of the enterprise, and Wahaha will also consider listing at an appropriate time." "In 2018, there was news that the company was going to go public, and employees were told that according to relevant regulations, the listing entity could not exceed 200** East. At that time, the company negotiated with the employee, and the employee voluntarily gave up the capital contribution certificate and shareholding interest, and the company would give 26 times the compensation. However, there has been no progress in this follow-up. Now, it's Zong Fuli's turn to solve this problem. Under the care of her father Zong Qinghou, Zong Fuli has been training in Wahaha for 24 years, "Zong Fuli's performance in Wahaha Group can score 90 points", how can she promote the next stage of Wahaha's development with high scores? Zong Qinghou can't continue to accompany his daughter, but he has already reached a Wahaha that is about to change. In an interview, he once said, "At least 50% of the second generation of private entrepreneurs are unwilling to do the industry, they don't necessarily like it." Zong Fuli is still willing, but the future development direction may be different from mine. * CCTV (reporter Shao Lanjie Ji Wenchao).