On February 25, Hangzhou stopped raining for days under the influence of cold air.
Near noon on the same day, Wahaha Group released an obituary, Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of the group, died at 10:30 on February 25, 2024, at the age of 79.
In the evening, at No. 160 Qingtai Street, in front of an inconspicuous six-story gray office building, many ** reporters and citizens were wandering - this is the place where Zong Qinghou "set off", and "Wahaha" has gradually grown into a well-known national brand, and Zong Qinghou has also become one of the representatives of private entrepreneurs after the reform and opening up.
At the end of 2023, the headquarters of Wahaha Group has moved to a new building, and the door here is closed. But under the iron gate, a row of flowers sent by citizens has been neatly placed. From time to time, there are also takeaway brothers who send signature products such as AD calcium milk and Wahaha pure water, and gently put them next to the flowers after bowing seriously.
On the evening of February 25, at the entrance of the old building of Wahaha Group headquarters, many citizens spontaneously sent flowers and Wahaha products. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Wei Yijun.
Inside the gate, the three big characters "Wahaha" on the door of the office building are still bright, but the young man who stands at the forefront of reform and opening up, the doer who keeps innovating and moving forward in the front line of the market, and the entrepreneur who has been at the helm of the enterprise for more than 30 years and struggled to the last moment of his life, has bid farewell to the cause that he has devoted all his efforts to.
For the sake of the country and the better development of society, he never hesitated to tell the truth;On different occasions, the importance of the real economy has been repeatedly emphasized;The plain and firm tone, the simple dress ...... that has not changedAfter several interviews with Zong Qing, every feeling, every scene, and every word gradually emerged, and the excellent characteristics of a generation of private entrepreneurs were condensed and embodied in him.
Putting aside the labels of "beverage king" and "China's richest man" for the time being, the image of Zong Qinghou, a "truth-seeker", is deeply imprinted in the minds of reporters.
Industry: "Wahaha is my whole life, all my dreams".
Braving the low temperature, Feng Hui, a citizen of Hangzhou, specially rushed to the old building of Wahaha Group headquarters to remember Zong Qinghou, "I am a 'post-90s', and I often drink Wahaha drinks since I was a child, and many people may have a bottle of AD calcium milk in their childhood."
Speaking of Wahaha, whether it is white and green AD calcium milk, pure water in a square bottle, or the popular very cola, enduring eight-treasure porridge, and nutrition express, there is always a product that can evoke people's memories of the brand for the first time.
Let the image of a crooked child wearing a peaked cap, a bow tie, and a smile enter thousands of households, this legend began when Zong Qinghou was 42 years old.
Looking back, he once remembered the hard life of his youth vividly. For 15 years, he spent 15 years working on farms in Zhoushan and Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Build dams, pull stones, plant rice, plant tea, ......It's like farming all year round, but Zong Qinghou always feels a little far from his ideal ambitions.
In 1978, Zong Qinghou returned to Hangzhou to replace his mother's position as a primary school teacher, but was assigned to work as a worker in a school-run enterprise due to insufficient education. During this period, he also ran a fan factory and an electric meter factory, which claimed to be "always wanting to do something".
The spring tide of reform and opening up is surging, and one by one the tides are like spring seeds, accumulating strength and waiting for the moment when the ground is broken. At that time, Lu Guanqiu had led Wanxiang Group to enter the American market of Chinese auto parts, and the Haiyan Shirt General Factory, which Bu Xinsheng was in charge, had already sung the "song of entrepreneurs".
Zong Qinghou tirelessly groped for school-run enterprises to accumulate market experience. In 1987, 42-year-old Zong Qinghou borrowed 140,000 yuan and led two retired teachers to contract the distribution department of the school-run enterprise in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, the predecessor of Wahaha. Started by selling sodas, popsicles, and stationery to earn a penny, Zong Qinghou officially embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.
In the first year of entrepreneurship, being able to endure hardships and thinking lively, Zong Qinghou directly increased the target of 40,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan. In the second year, Wahaha joined hands with Zhu Shoumin, the former director of the Department of Nutrition of Zhejiang Medical University, to successfully develop the first self-owned brand product - Wahaha Children's Nutrition Solution.
As this product makes up for the gap in the children's nutrition market, Wahaha Children's Nutrition Solution has become an instant hit in the market and has become the company's signature product. In 1990, Wahaha's sales revenue has exceeded 100 million yuan, the profit has exceeded 20 million yuan, and the company's output value, sales, profits and taxes, profits and other economic indicators have grown in a straight line.
In 1991, a news of "small fish eating big fish" once again made Wahaha famous all over the country - in order to expand production capacity and meet market demand, Zong Qinghou led Hangzhou Wahaha Nutritional Food Factory, which has only more than 100 people, to successfully merge the state-owned Hangzhou Canned Food Factory with a plant area of 60,000 square meters and more than 2,000 employees with more than 8,000 yuan.
After the merger, Wahaha took advantage of its product advantages, capital advantages and market advantages to quickly revitalize the stock assets of Hangzhou Canning Factory. In just three months, the Hangzhou canning factory, which originally lost more than 40 million yuan, turned losses into profits, and Wahaha's sales revenue, profits and taxes more than doubled that year.
Every step to outperform the market is inseparable from a keen sense of business opportunities and the courage to open up the spirit. Entered the bottled water market and developed new ......products such as very cola and AD calcium milkToday, Wahaha products have covered more than 200 varieties in more than 10 categories, such as packaged drinking water, protein drinks, carbonated drinks, and canned food.
On September 12, 2023, on the "2023 List of China's Top 500 Private Enterprises" released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Hangzhou Wahaha Group ranked 227th on the list with an operating income of 5120216 million yuan.
A few years ago, Zong Qinghou's attitude towards "e-commerce" once became the focus of heated discussions. "In the past, the outside world had a misunderstanding of my attitude towards e-commerce, and I fully recognized the value of e-commerce in creating jobs, promoting the flow of products, and feeding back the real economy, but I resolutely oppose unreasonable and illegal chaos such as 'burning money', selling counterfeits, and not paying taxes. In a previous interview with reporters, Zong Qinghou hated the signs of making quick money in some industries.
When e-commerce gradually becomes standardized and mature, and is in line with the development direction of the enterprise, we are very willing to embrace e-commerce. Zong Qinghou said, "I always believe that the physical manufacturing industry is the foundation of the development of the digital economy, Internet technology, digital economy has brought a lot of benefits, the next step is indeed a general direction, but the premise is not to separate from the entity." ”
Yang Yiqing, a professor at Zhejiang Gongshang University who has long been concerned about the study of Zhejiang businessmen, believes that Zong Qinghou has been in business for 37 years, and has always adhered to the industry and is a traditional food manufacturing industry.
Wahaha's management style, corporate culture, office space, product name, packaging advertising, etc., reveal a pragmatic and even simple style everywhere, and focus and pragmatism are an important foundation for the steady development of an enterprise. Yang Yiqing said.
Zong Qinghou once revealed his heart emotionally: "There will be a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and there will be a thousand Wahaha in the eyes of a thousand people, but for me, there is only one Wahaha, it is my whole life, all my dreams, all meanings, values, labels and symbols, it is the proof of my existence in this world." ”
You have worked hard all your life! I hope that there will be more great industrialists like you in China and realize modernization as soon as possible! You're good all the way! On the bouquet in front of the old building of the Wahaha Group headquarters, an unsigned card reads.
Practical work: "I am still working hard, as long as I make some contributions to society and the country".
Time flies, and the last time the reporter interviewed Zong Qing was more than a year ago in the summer of 2022.
For Zong Qinghou, it was just an ordinary morning - facing the rising sun, accompanied by the chirping of cicadas, he had been working in the office for a long time. Wearing reading glasses, he carefully reviewed each item of data on the report, sometimes turning the computer and writing down the annotations with a red pen.
For more than 30 years, he has always maintained a hands-on work state. He once said: "I founded a Wahaha in this life, and I don't want Wahaha to decline in my lifetime, so I will always maintain steady and healthy growth." ”
This year's 70-year-old Aunt Ke's house is only separated by a wall from the old building of Wahaha headquarters, and in the early days of Zong Qinghou's business, she and the old neighbors who lived nearby even saw Zong Qinghou pedaling a tricycle to operate the company's nourishment raw materials.
From the balcony of my house, I can see the Wahaha conference room, and I can see Zong Qinghou in a meeting for a few days every week, sometimes even until 11 or 2 o'clock in the evening. Hearing the news of Zong Qinghou's death, Aunt Ke came to the door of the company and said "I didn't expect it", "In them, the first generation of Zhejiang businessmen, you can see a sense of righteousness." ”
The experience of the growth environment and the entrepreneurial process of the road have made "hard work" a characteristic engraved into the bones of the generation of private entrepreneurs after Zong Qing. "Make great efforts, work hard, have the courage to open up, and strive for self-improvement", Wahaha's 16-word enterprise spirit is worth a thousand words.
Zong Qinghou once summed up his business philosophy as "focus on the main business, small steps and run fast". The so-called "small steps" refers to being cautious in decision-making, expanding in small steps, and immediately retreating and stopping losses if they find something wrong; "Running fast" means acting quickly and seizing the opportunity without hesitation.
In 1996, Wahaha began to explore the introduction of foreign investment, and joined hands with Danone, a giant in the French dairy and biscuit industry, to establish a joint venture between the two parties. After a "honeymoon period", in early 2007, Danone wanted to forcibly buy the shares of Wahaha's other non-joint venture companies, but Zong Qinghou's stubborn resistance Danone threatened to "let him spend the rest of his life in litigation".
I still want to keep my own brand, I think it is reasonable to go all over the world without fear of others. In dozens of lawsuits since then, Mr. Zong, who is in his 60s, wrote every testimony himself. In the end, Danone, which lost dozens of lawsuits at home and abroad, chose to give Wahaha 51% of its equity in each joint venture company**, withdrew from the joint venture, and the two parties reached a settlement.
The brutal business war shows a tough side, which stems from the full confidence of Zhejiang businessmen who dare to dare to fight, dare to think and dare to do things, products, brands, and resonance with the development of the country.
After creating the legendary story of "beverage king" and leading the rapid expansion of the enterprise, Zong Qinghou once said: "We are also a private enterprise established under the guidance of the reform and opening up policy, and the more money we make, the greater the responsibility I think." "The money I earn may not be spent in a few lifetimes, but I am still working hard, as long as I contribute something to society and the country. ”
On an old **, Zong Qinghou stood next to the plaque of "Wahaha Group Company Fuling Co., Ltd.", and the light and shadow instantly recorded the starting point of Wahaha's industrial poverty alleviation.
At the end of 1994, Wahaha actively responded to the call of the counterpart to support the resettlement work in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, devoted itself to the development of the western region, merged three flooded enterprises in the Fuling area, and established Wahaha Fuling Co., Ltd. Through mature products, technologies and markets, supplemented by financial support and brand advantages, Fuling Company has opened up the situation in one fell swoop, and its output value, profits and taxes have grown rapidly year after year.
The success of Fuling Company has accumulated valuable experience for Wahaha. Since then, the strategic pace of "going west to the north" and setting up factories on the spot close to the consumer market has become bigger and bigger.
At the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, Wahaha's manufacturing base in Wencheng, a mountainous county in southern Zhejiang, has been operating at full capacity. "The contract was signed in 2021, and the first phase of the project will be fully put into operation in 2022, and the Wahaha project has played a huge role in employment, raw material procurement, and industrial demonstration drive. Wang Jian, Secretary of the Party Committee of Juyu Town, Wencheng County, said.
As the first project to be put into operation in Bailuzhou Water Economic Industrial Park in Wencheng County, after Wahaha settled in, projects such as honey water, reduced milk, and drinking water have been signed, and the industrial scale effect has begun to appear.
More stories of industrial poverty alleviation have been staged in the western region, old revolutionary base areas, border minority areas, and poverty-stricken areas. So far, Wahaha has established more than 180 branches in 29 provinces across the country.
Zong Qinghou's last public appearance was at Wahaha's 2024 National Sales Work Conference in December 2023. After 3 years of suspension, the conference was reconvened with a different weight in the heart of Zong Qinghou, tens of thousands of dealers from all over the world gathered in Hangzhou, and Zong Qinghou created the "joint sales model", so that the distribution channels as fine as capillaries penetrated into the urban and rural areas.
Some commentators have pointed out that among this generation of entrepreneurs, Zong Qinghou's greatest contribution is Chinese-style innovation in marketingSecondly, Wahaha is the first enterprise that can sell 1 yuan and 1 bottle of drinking water to millions of villages across the country. "Wahaha can be said to be a textbook-level case in the field of marketing and advertising in China's food and beverage industry and home appliance industry since the 90s of the 20th century. ”
Zong Qinghou works in the office of the old building of the Wahaha Group headquarters (photo taken on June 6, 2022). Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Jiang Han.
Really: "Enterprises are created by hard work, and I should still develop the habit of diligence and thrift".
It wasn't until more than nine o'clock in the evening, after the end of the day's duty, that Wang Ting, the conductor of the Shanghai passenger section who received the reporter's **, knew the news of Zong Qinghou's death that day.
In December 2016, some netizens photographed Zong Qinghou sitting in a second-class carriage on the G2365 high-speed train. At that time, Wang Ting, as a conductor, routinely checked passenger tickets, but she didn't know Zong Qinghou, "I just remember that he was very kind, not impatient at all, and very cooperative."
Afterwards, she saw the information on the Internet and realized that the passenger who did not have a shelf and gave the child in the front row a bottle of AD calcium milk turned out to be a legendary entrepreneur in the beverage industry.
It felt quite sudden, and the scene seemed to be in front of me, and I felt a little uncomfortable. Wang Ting said, "If I go back in time, I might ask him to take a group photo." ”
A shirt with a simple texture, and cloth shoes that are often talked about......Wahaha has made great progress all the way, allowing Zong Qinghou to win the Forbes Chinese mainland rich list three times, but in strong contrast is his consistent hard and simple living habits.
Zong Qinghou once said frankly that when he was young, his mother's meager salary had to raise their 5 children, and the life of eating the last meal and not the next meal made him "poor and afraid". "I have been in the countryside for 15 years, and at that time I couldn't eat enough food, and I couldn't wear warm clothes. ”
In April 1992, Zong Qinghou won the honor of "Hangzhou Shangcheng District Economic Development Hero", and when he received the 100,000 yuan ** bonus, he cried on the spot.
Ten years later, he, Lu Guanqiu, the founder of Wanxiang Group, and Feng Gensheng, chairman of Qingchunbao Group, were awarded a reward of 3 million yuan each by the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government as meritorious entrepreneurs. At the commendation meeting, Zong Qinghou has been restrained from excitement, when he returned to the door of the company, the salute rang out, and the employees presented him with a garland, and Zong Qinghou cried silently.
100,000 and 3 million, although they are two generous praises, but for Zong Qinghou, who has become a "legend of wealth creation" at that time, it will not make him cry when he is usually moody.
Hu Hongwei, executive chairman of the Zhejiang Merchants Research Association and a scholar of the history of reform and opening up, believes that the reason why Zong Qinghou burst into tears can only be that as a person who once had a prominent family and struggled at the bottom, he longed to be respected, recognized and glorified. He got it.
Winning glory and leaving a name is the belief of that generation that goes deep into the bone marrow, and it is the driving force behind their unremitting struggle throughout their lives. Hu Hongwei said.
Zong Qinghou once said that he was excited to have a very amazing staff. In the past ten years, employees have suffered a lot with him, but they have always supported him very much, and it is the employees who have helped him achieve his career.
30,000 employees are an indispensable solid guarantee for Zong Qinghou's career success, and he is self-made and knows the grassroots level, and he always sympathizes with the confusion and difficulties of employees and young people in the start-up stage.
Take out the "best lot" of the original site of the Hangzhou canning factory and build low-rent houses for employees; It has been proposed many times to control housing prices and reduce the burden on young people; It calls for increasing residents' income and stimulating the potential of domestic consumption; The year-end bonus is given to employees every year, so that employees can share the ...... of development results in the most intuitive wayThe content of each interview with Zong Qinghou is different, but the attention to the grassroots group is always a topic that he intentionally or unintentionally hangs on his lips.
Many of the old entrepreneurs of my generation were self-made and hardworking. Zong Qinghou said, "If we can help the people get rich and truly achieve common prosperity, the wealth of entrepreneurs will also be respected." ”
At the age of 73, Zong Qinghou read Ji Xianlin's "Eighty Expressions" on a TV program, sending a message to young people who are studying and starting a business
And looking back, in the gray mess, I clearly saw a road, the road is extremely long, and I have walked step by step. ”
I know that the road ahead will not be straighter and smoother than in the past, but I am not afraid. The shadows of wild lilies and wild roses flickered before my eyes. ”
Through the magnificent waves of reform and opening up, experiencing the ups and downs of the market, Zong Qinghou's eyes are tranquil and resolute. Ji Lao's words are not only full of Zong Qinghou's hopes for the latecomers, but also a vivid reproduction of his self-described thoughts.
A generation will eventually grow old, but there will always be people who are young.
When Shen Aiqin, Feng Gensheng, Lu Guanqiu, Zong Qinghou and other first-generation Zhejiang businessmen came to an end, a glorious history that will shine forever in the sky of history gradually turned the page.
At the moment when the spirit of entrepreneurship is constantly mentioned, the stage for the development of private enterprises is broader, and the times call for more entrepreneurs to take over the mantle and write their own chapters of the era under the guidance and encouragement of the spirit of their predecessors.
Pragmatism, innovation, hard work, perseverance. Chinese entrepreneurs are trekking forward and moving forward. (Reporter Wei Yijun).
*: Xinhua Daily Telegraph.