Text: Twilight City View History.
Edited by Twilight City Chronicles.
【Foreword·】—
Zong Qinghou, the chairman and founder of Wahaha, passed away, and he caused public mourning as an entrepreneur with conscience and faith.
He is responsible for his family and employees internally, has only one daughter in his private life, does not pressure employees' salaries, and does not fire employees over 45 years old. Be responsible for the country and the country, do not trade with foreign capital, do not immigrate, and do not do money-making business.
In this era of demons dancing wildly, Zong Qinghou is a clean and positive entrepreneur patriarchal image, he has been the richest man several times, but he has never caused the people's "hatred of the rich", because the masses know that his money comes cleanly, and it is sold one bottle of water after another.
But the masses owe him an apology, because of a bad rumor, people were angry and boycotted Wahaha, so that Wahaha lost 12.5 billion, hurt Wahaha enterprises, and hurt Zong Qinghou's confidence in entrepreneurship.
[All mouths are gold]—
In the childhood of the post-00s, there is a drink, that is, Nutrition Express, "Drink a bottle in the morning, and refresh in the morning." "In that era, the nutrition express line was pulse, Red Bull, plus the sweet and sour was very delicious, and many children almost had a bottle a day.
Nutrition Express is Wahaha's signature product, and during that time, Wahaha launched many varieties of drinks, such as AD Calcium, Wahaha, Very Cola, and Shuang Crooked. The launch of these domestic beverages fills the gap in the Chinese beverage market.
How good was Wahaha at its peak? As the first generation of domestic products, it has set a record of being the second largest private non-listed company in China after Huawei. In 2013, Wahaha's annual revenue reached 78.3 billion yuan, and Zong Qinghou was the richest man in China for three consecutive years.
At that time, Chinese children didn't drink Coke Sprite anymore, and everyone held a cool and crooked bottle**, Wahaha became China's No. 1 beverage company, occupying most of the market and squeezing out those foreign-funded products.
is also such an excellent performance, so that Wahaha was "targeted". In 2011, a rumor "came out" - some people said that the nutrition express line added livelihood supplies, and the rumor-mongers even came up with "evidence" that Wahaha was a condom when it was boiled dry.
Now this news seems to be true, and I guess no one will believe it. But that was in 2011, and food safety was frequent, with gutter oil, melamine milk powder, and yogurt mixed with plastic. The crises have forced us to be skeptical about food all the time.
As a result, the information of "condoms added to the nutrition express" spread rapidly, which seriously affected the sales of the nutrition express, and Wahaha's milk products had a thick taste, making this news more credible.
The rumors are getting more and more outrageous, drinking Wahaha will get leukemia, there are frequent rumors such as botulinum toxin, and the number of likes of rumors is 200 million.
Wahaha immediately clarified, the dairy products have a strong taste because they use real milk and have a high protein content, but in the face of such a ** turmoil, this clarification is useless.
Nutrition Express's sales fell from 400 million cases a year to 1 in a year500 million boxes, and the direct loss reached 12.5 billion yuan. In 2021, Wahaha's total revenue will be 5191.5 billion, a figure that has regressed to the level of 2010.
Seeing that the enterprise he had supported step by step was greatly damaged, Zong Qinghou was also frustrated, but his life was full of twists and turns, and this impact could not defeat him.
[Wahaha's entrepreneurial road·]—
He was born in 1945, although he had excellent grades, because his family was too poor, he dropped out of school at the age of 18 to work, worked on the farm, planted tea in the tea farm, and even killed pigs, but he always maintained the habit of reading, and read books whenever he had time.
In 1987, 42-year-old Zong Qinghou caught up with the wave of reform and opening up, and also started a business, he contracted a small business of primary school books and stationery, and rode a tricycle to deliver goods to each school. Although he was barren at that time, he was full of energy.
Dealing with children every day, he knows best what children like, and saved a lot of savings by sending stationery to schools, he chartered a canning factory, contacted nutrition experts, and developed a product business of children's nutrition solution, named "Wahaha nutrient solution".
What should I do if the product is made but cannot be sold? When funds were at their tightest, Zong Qinghou gritted his teeth and squeezed out 200,000 yuan to invest in TV commercials.
This time he bet on the right one, and Wahaha's advertising slogan "Drink wahaha, eat is fragrant" is catchy. The emergence of Wahaha has really solved the problem that many Chinese children do not like to eat.
In the 90s of the last century, Wahaha's sales volume was nearly 100 million, and the first thing Zong Qinghou did when he made a fortune was not pleasure, but bought the Hangzhou Canned Food Factory, which was about to close down at that time, kept the jobs of 2,000 old employees, and established Wahaha Group.
At that time, there was no such developed e-commerce, all of them relied on Zong Qinghou step by step, from Hangzhou as the origin, Zong Qinghou's sales network spread all over the country.
In 1996, Zong Qinghou launched Wahaha AD calcium milk against Pepsi, which is still loved by the public.
In the same year, Wahaha pure water was launched, and Wang Leehom's young and immature face on the bottle was matched with its well-known logo, which attracted countless people to buy, and Wahaha became a leading enterprise in the field of pure water in China.
In 1998, under the slogan of Chinese's own Coke, Wahaha Very Coke was launched, which not only formed a three-legged stand with Coca-Cola and Pepsi after listing, but also occupied 17% of the national carbonated beverage market share in just a few years.
[Create brilliance again or slump]—
However, with the emergence of rumors and the rapid development of e-commerce, Alibaba has been rising in 16 years, but Zong Qinghou said in public: E-commerce is harmful to the country's real economy. This is also true, the entities that did not transform in time have been hit hard.
Now Zong Fuli has taken over Wahaha and led Wahaha to make a younger attempt, cooperating with e-commerce to launch a sugar-free tea drink low-sugar version, a nutrition express semi-sugar version, and milk tea, and at the same time cooperating with projects that young people are interested in, League of Legends Station B Bubble Mart.
But Zong Qinghou is not optimistic about this, he feels that it is very lively, but there is no direct reflection in sales.
In the torrent of the market, consumers are always changing, maybe Wahaha's era has passed, and his era has just begun, a generation has to face the problems of a generation, I hope Zong Fuli can lead Wahaha to create brilliance.
Material**: Guangming Network - Direct Hit Zong Qinghou Memorial Service: Flowers are mountains at the gate of Wahaha, and the people brave the rain to say goodbye.
Xinhua News Agency - 70 people in 70 years Zong Qinghou: Hard work is the brand of Wahaha.