Produced by Radar Finance and EconomicsMoenmeng, edDeep sea
Zong Lao hated online violence during his lifetime. I never thought that on the death of Zong Lao, there were a lot of slanders against me and Nongfu Spring on the Internet, which is by no means what Zong Lao is happy to see", on the first day after Zong Qinghou's "first seven", Nongfu Spring's helmsman Zhong Sui posted a long article in response to the controversy on the Internet.
Since the death of Zong Qinghou, countless citizens, netizens, entrepreneurs and Wahaha employees have expressed their condolences and respect for the death of this legendary entrepreneur. In addition to offering flowers and condolences, netizens also used real consumption to express their concern and support for Wahaha. All of a sudden, countless consumers rushed into offline stores or online stores, as well as Wahaha's live broadcast room, and frantically snapped up Wahaha's products.
At the same time that Wahaha was out of the circle again this time, Nongfu Spring, which was in the same drink track as the former, and its behind-the-scenes helmsman, Zhong Sui, were also pushed into the spotlight. In many self-published articles, this big man, who has topped the rich list many times in recent years, has been labeled as "ungrateful", and the old affair between Zong Qinghou and Zhong Sui has been compared to the story of "The Farmer and the Snake". In addition, there is also the old story of Nongfu Spring's large dividends before listing, and there is no shortage of money for development, but a lot of funds have been raised from **.
In the face of all kinds of doubts from the outside world, Zhong chose not to be silent anymore. On March 3, Zhong clarified to the outside world through Nongfu Spring that the cloth business was the first pot of gold he earned from his business, not the rumor on the Internet that "the first entrepreneurial income came from Wahaha". Zhong also emphasized that he had never received a salary in Wahaha, let alone been fired for rushing goods.
As for the dispute between the natural water represented by Nongfu Spring and the pure water led by Wahaha, Zhong said that although there were "lawsuits against each other", he eventually "shook hands and made peace". It is reported that this huge "water war of the century" ended with the end of the official media and Nongfu Spring being fined 200,000 yuan. However, after this battle, Nongfu Spring's popularity in the market has been greatly improved.
Today, with the two major industries of beverage and health care, Zhong has already built a huge business empire of his own, and Zong Qinghou, who was once the richest man in China, has been overtaken by his juniors. In the "Hurun Report" released last year, Zhong Sui topped the list for the third time with a wealth of 450 billion yuan, while Zong Qinghou ranked 32nd on the list with a wealth of 100 billion yuan.
Wahaha, who was bought, and Nongfu Spring, who was bullied by the Internet
After the death of Zong Qinghou, who was regarded by the outside world as the soul of Wahaha, the discussion about Zong Qinghou did not end there. Among them, the old affair between Zong Qinghou and Zhong Sui aroused heated discussions among netizens. On March 3, Nongfu Spring's official account published an article entitled "Zhong Sui: My Second and Third Matters with the Elder Zong".
According to Zhong Sui, before Zong Qinghou's death, Zhong Sui, who learned the news of his serious illness, had asked someone to express his desire to visit, but due to Zong Qinghou's physical condition, it was inconvenient to see guests, and in the end, Zhong Qinghou's visit to Zong Qinghou could not be made.
After the death of Zong Qinghou, an endless stream of people went to Wahaha's headquarters or mourned on the Internet, including Wahaha employees, distributors, and countless citizens. Radar Finance learned through Wahaha's official online condolence hall that as of 11 a.m. on March 4, more than 570,000 people had laid flowers and condolences for Zong Qinghou.
At the same time, many entrepreneurs also expressed deep regret over the death of Zong Qinghou, including Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, and Chen Dongsheng, chairman of Taikang Insurance. And Zhong, who was unable to visit Zong Qinghou before his death, also went to Zong Qinghou's mourning hall to bow and mourn, lay wreaths, and express condolences to Zong Qinghou's family.
Zong Qinghou's departure not only aroused the deep remembrance of the public, but also further drove the "wild consumption" trend of Wahaha products. Some ** inquiries found that on February 28th and 29th, Wahaha's official *** did not start the live broadcast, but the store's sales increased by more than 500%, and the first-selling product was the AD calcium milk launched by Wahaha.
In the face of the enthusiasm of netizens, on March 1, Wahaha officially announced on social platforms that it has received countless care and support from everyone recently, and the number of store orders has increased significantly.
At the same time, Wahaha's official *** also said in the announcement that it failed to let everyone have a better service experience, Wahaha apologizes, and also recommends that everyone consume rationally and buy on demand.
According to Gray Dolphin data, in the last 30 days as of press time, Wahaha's official *** has added nearly 2 million new fans. On March 4, Wahaha's official live broadcast sales were as high as 2.5 million to 5 million yuan. For reference, in the 30 days prior to this, most of the account's live sales failed to exceed 250,000 yuan.
At the same time that the online products were snatched up, Wahaha** also sold out. According to Pinyinhui, a few days ago, offline merchants said that the sales volume of the Wahaha series was less than 1,000 bottles, and the sales volume on February 25 reached 5,000-6,000 bottles.
The person in charge of a supermarket in Hangzhou also said that since February 25, the sales volume of Wahaha AD calcium milk has increased by 100% year-on-year, and the sales growth of Wahaha's entire category has reached 20%-30%.
Contrary to Wahaha's bought, Nongfu Spring and the head behind it, Zhong Sui, were pushed to the forefront by some articles published by **. These self-published articles mentioned that Zhong was once a ** businessman of Wahaha, and was also "swept away" for "reselling" Wahaha products. Zhong Sui, who is "self-reliant", even relied on similar remarks such as "although distilled water is pure, but long-term drinking may not be beneficial to the body", helping Nongfu Spring to snatch a large share of the bottled drinking water market from Wahaha, which specializes in pure water.
In addition, there are also self-claims that Nongfu Spring uses plastic packaging to save costs, while Wahaha chooses carton packaging to avoid harmful substances from being exposed to the sun, and cartons can also sell some money ...... to the poorAfter the previous rumors have been fermented, bad comments such as "ungrateful" and "farmer and snake" have also hit Zhong, and even many bloggers have dumped Nongfu Spring's products in their own **, in order to express their attitude of supporting Wahaha.
Zhong Sui: I have never received a salary in Wahaha, let alone been fired for rushing goods
Today is the first day after the 'first seven' of the sect elder. Zong Lao has always been an entrepreneur I respect. He and I are also teachers and friends, and of course, competitors to each other," said the article, which was published on March 3, in which Zhong told the story of his past with Zong Qinghou in the first person, and tried to clarify the controversy he had recently been involved in.
According to public reports, Zhong Sui, who has been on the throne of China's richest man many times, was born in a traditional intellectual family when he was a child. However, Zhong, who has a scholarly background, was forced to drop out of school in the fifth grade of primary school. From the late 60s to 1977, Zhong traveled to Jiaxing, Shaoxing and other places, learning to be a plasterer and carpenter.
When the college entrance examination resumed, Zhong took the college entrance examination twice, but neither of them was "high school". Subsequently, Zhong chose to study in the Chinese Department of Zhejiang Electric University, and entered the Zhejiang Radio and Television System with the elders in the family. At first, Zhong Sui was in the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles to manage the infrastructure, and later Zhong Sui went to the "Jiangnan" magazine and the "Zhejiang**" agency.
In February 1988, Zhong resigned from his job as a reporter and officially went to sea. The year before, Zong Qinghou had just taken the 140,000 yuan he borrowed to contract the distribution department of the school-run enterprise in Shangcheng District, and started his own business road by selling soda, popsicles and stationery paper.
In Zhong's self-report, he once ran a newspaper and planted mushrooms, but Zhong's two entrepreneurial experiences failed to achieve ultimate success. Later, during the business period in Hainan, Zhong Sui keenly observed that Hainan, which was just emerging in real estate at that time, did not have the ability to process curtain fabrics, and saw the business opportunities behind Zhong Sui and immediately established Dacheng Curtain Company in Hainan.
It is reported that the main business of Zhong Sui Curtain Company is to transport the curtain cloth produced in Hangzhou to Hainan for sale. After the scale continued to grow, Zhong's curtain business once extended its tentacles to Wangfujing and Lufthansa Department Store in Beijing. In Zhong's eyes, the cloth business is the first pot of gold he earns from starting a business, and Zhong also denies the Internet rumor that "the first entrepreneurial income comes from Wahaha".
However, Zhong and Wahaha did have business contacts. In 1988, under the guidance of Professor Zhu Shoumin of the Department of Nutrition of Zhejiang Medical University, Wahaha successfully developed its first product, Wahaha Children's Nutrition Solution. In the second year, Zong Qinghou's company name was changed from "Hangzhou Baoling Children's Nutrition Food Factory" to "Hangzhou Wahaha Nutrition Food Factory".
In 1990, Wahaha's sales revenue exceeded 100 million yuan, profits exceeded 20 million yuan, and economic indicators such as enterprise output value, sales, profits and taxes, and profits grew in a straight line. The acquaintance between Zhong and Zong Qinghou can be traced back to 1991. That year, under the introduction of a former colleague, Zhong got the opportunity to visit Zong Qinghou at the Wahaha headquarters on Qingtai Street in Hangzhou.
When recalling this experience, Zhong mentioned that he also brought two books as a meeting gift to Zong Qinghou, one of which was "The Limit of Growth" and the other was "Theory Z". At that time, Zong Qinghou invited the visiting Zhong to visit a canning factory with a scale of more than 2,200 people that he had just acquired.
Judging from Zhong's narration, the birth of Wahaha's star product Babao porridge also has a certain origin. At that time, seeing that many professional production equipment in Zong Qinghou's canning factory were idle, Zhong Sui thought of the popular canned eight-treasure porridge in some parts of Southeast Asia, so he suggested to Zong Qinghou that he produce canned eight-treasure porridge, and even asked his relatives to bring back six cans of local eight-treasure porridge products from Singapore to Zong Qinghou's home.
Zong Lao was very happy and felt that my suggestion had a market, and then invested in research and development and developed and produced the well-known Wahaha Nutritional Eight Treasure Porridge, and proposed that I set up Wahaha offices in Guangxi and Hainan to sell Wahaha Children's Nutrition Oral Liquid", in the face of Zong Qinghou's invitation, Zhong Sui readily agreed.
However, according to Zhong, the market demand in Hainan and Guangxi did not meet expectations at that time, and it was difficult to sell products after running through various markets. After that, several trading companies went to Hainan to ask them about the purchase, and they were able to clear the purchases.
Later, Zhong learned that there is a market for children's nutrition oral liquid in Guangdong. At the sales meeting held by Nongfu Spring many years later, Zhong reminded him of the matter and jokingly joked, "Wahaha, which we didn't sell in Hainan back then, is estimated to have been sold to Guangdong, and if it is put now, it will be recognized as rushing goods."
In Zhong's view, it is precisely because of his casual joke back then that it has become a crime of "ingratitude" for himself. In this long article, Zhong emphasized that he had never received a salary in Wahaha, let alone been fired for rushing goods.
The battle between natural water and pure water is huge
In addition to the controversy of "being expelled in Wahaha for rushing goods", the boiling dispute between Wahaha and Nongfu Spring over natural water and pure water has also become one of the reasons why Zhong Sui was involved in the whirlpool of controversy.
In September 1996, Zhong Sui, who already owned Yangshengtang, founded Zhejiang Qiandao Lake Yangshengtang Drinking Water, and this company was the predecessor of Nongfu Spring. After the advent of Nongfu Spring, it was inevitably involved in the war in the bottled drinking water market, which also laid the groundwork for the controversy that Zhong Sui is now involved in.
At that time, Wahaha's main purified water was the mainstream product in the domestic bottled drinking water market. However, at a press conference held in April 2000, Nongfu Spring claimed that experiments have proved that drinking pure water for a long time is not beneficial to health, and Nongfu Spring no longer produces pure water, but all natural water.
In addition, an advertisement broadcast by Nongfu Spring on ** TV station also used a comparative experiment on the growth of daffodils to guide the subject of the appeal to drink natural water; Since the beginning of June, Nongfu Spring has launched the "Striving to Be a Little Scientist" activity, advocating primary school students to conduct biological comparison experiments on natural water and pure water to find out what kind of water is good.
These actions of Nongfu Spring have undoubtedly shaken the foundation of pure water enterprises. On June 14 of the same year, Wahaha Group sued the drinking water of Zhejiang Qiandao Lake Yangshengtang for the production of Nongfu Spring to the Shangcheng District People's Court of Hangzhou on the grounds of "unfair competition".
Subsequently, a delegation of 69 purified water producers, composed of Wahaha and six large purified water companies, including Shanghai Zhengguanghe and Robust, jointly launched an accusation against Nongfu Spring.
As the smell of gunpowder continued to permeate, the battle finally reached its climax on June 8 of that year. On this day, Wahaha held a press conference at the Zhejiang Hotel in the afternoon of the same day, while Nongfu Spring chose to hold a "press conference" at the Xizi Hotel, not far from the Zhejiang Hotel, that night.
In July 2000, Nongfu Spring took Wahaha to court and filed a lawsuit of up to 30 million yuan. According to the legal report, Nongfu Spring sued that Wahaha carried out a series of acts of unfair competition in order to crack down on competitors: spreading a large number of false "facts" to Beijing and other parts of the country, saying that "Nongfu Spring's water source is seriously polluted", "Nongfu Spring's market sales are not good", etc.; In the **TV station and TV stations across the country** series of "Goldfish Survival" comparison advertisements, the intention is to try to prove that only "Wahaha" pure water is the best.
In 2009, Nongfu Spring, which was helmed by Zhong Sui, was once again involved in controversy. That year, a report released by the Haikou Industrial and Commercial Bureau plunged Nongfu Spring into an "arsenic-gate" crisis. According to the report, the total arsenic content of the 30% mixed fruit and vegetable juice batch produced by Nongfu Spring on June 27 and the water-soluble C100 grapefruit juice drink batch produced by Wanlv Lake in Guangdong Province on August 16 exceeded the standard, which undoubtedly brought a fatal blow to Nongfu Spring.
It is worth mentioning that, according to ** reports, when Nongfu Spring was in crisis, Zong Qinghou did not fall into the trap of his former competitors, but chose to support Zhong Sui at this critical moment, and publicly expressed doubts about the test results of Nongfu Spring. Zong Qinghou's atmospheric move has been praised by many people to this day, fully embodying the spirit of unity and mutual assistance between Zhejiang businessmen.
The follow-up "arsenic gate" incident has a final result, and the Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center of the Hainan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau officially sent a letter to inform the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce that the initial inspection results were wrong. At the same time, the Hainan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce announced that after more than 20 days of investigation, it was only found that the Haikou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce had procedural irregularities in the process of work.
When recalling the business war experience between Nongfu Spring and Wahaha, Zhong made this statement in the long article released this time - as the two "protagonists" of the dispute, Wahaha and Nongfu Spring clarified their respective positions and product propositions in the dispute, and both have made certain achievements in the follow-up.
Zhong also added, "After that, we had lawsuits against each other, but in the end, Zong Lao and I shook hands and made peace in the presence of the main leaders of Hangzhou at that time." However, Zhong also stresses that "to this day, I still insist that the mineral elements in water are essential for human health, which is why I insist on producing natural water."
It is worth mentioning that before Zhong Sui personally responded to the controversy from the outside world, Zhou Li, who is the vice president of Nongfu Spring, once said in the circle of friends that the two companies are in the same city, although there was competition in the early years, and even in court, it was still fair and honest competition under the legal framework.
Zhou Li also said that after 2000, due to the difference in product structure and market positioning, the competition with Wahaha has basically not been discussed in the farmer's business topic, and in 2013, when the farmer and the first hard standard were also instigated, Zong Qinghou said "that someone is deliberately engaging in farmers" to show his attitude. Zhou Li said that on the second day of the Spring Festival in 2014, he also went with Zhong Sui to visit Mr. Zong, who had already started work, and at that time he also lamented that Mr. Zong's diligence was unmatched.
Radar Finance learned from Wahaha's official website that since its establishment in 1987, the company has accumulated sales of more than 860 billion yuan, has more than 180 subsidiaries, and has more than 80 production bases and more than 30,000 employees.
In 2010, Zong Qinghou topped the "Hurun Report" for the first time, winning the title of the richest man. However, after more than 30 years of entrepreneurship, Wahaha still insists on not going public. When mentioning the reason behind it, Zong Qinghou once said, "Listing is responsible for shareholders." If it falls in the end, so that the people lose a lot of money, I don't think it is appropriate. ”
Unlike Wahaha's insistence on not going public, Nongfu Spring rang the bell for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2020. According to the prospectus submitted by Nongfu Spring, from 2017 to 2019, Nongfu Spring paid a total of 103 dividends to shareholders3.2 billion yuan. Among them, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Nongfu Spring paid dividends to shareholders of the company36.7 billion yuan, 3$6.7 billion and $9.59.8 billion yuan.
After the listing, Nongfu Spring paid dividends many times. According to data from Oriental Wealth, as of the end of June last year, Zhong held 28 shares directly in Nongfu Spring74% and 55% indirectly held23%, the high concentration of equity means that Zhong is undoubtedly the biggest winner behind the company's dividends.
In 2021, with its two listed companies, Wantai Biotechnology and Nongfu Spring, Zhong became the richest man in China for the first time on the "Hurun Report" with a wealth of 390 billion yuan. Later, in 2022, Zhong will keep his position as the richest man with a wealth of 455 billion yuan, which is 210 billion yuan more than the wealth of Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, who ranks second.
Last year, Zhong once again topped the "Hurun Report" for the third consecutive year with a wealth of 450 billion yuan. In the same year, Zong Qinghou ranked 32nd on the list with a wealth of 100 billion yuan.
With the end of the era of Zong Qinghou, Wahaha was handed over to Zong Qinghou's daughter Zong Fuli. What kind of stories will Nongfu Spring and Wahaha perform in the future? Radar Finance will continue to pay attention.