With left-handed drinking water and right-handed biomedicine, the 68-year-old Zhong Shuishui is still the richest man in China again with a wealth of 455 billion yuan.
Entrepreneurial identity, literati dress, and fiery personality are the three key words of Zhong Shui.
Born in a family of fallen intellectuals, he grew up in the 1980s, where humanities and ideals were intertwined. From masons to literati to businessmen, he seems to be telling everyone that the nature of business has never changed as Internet technology has turned Chinese business beyond recognition.
It's just that the people and things that were once there have long been blurred.
01
Craftsman-literati-merchant
It is difficult for people who are not familiar with it to imagine that Zhong Sui, who has such achievements in the mall, has also disdained all businessmen in the past because of the high level of the literati.
He once dissected himself many years ago: "The capable people among the literati can only be regarded as half a strongman, and the capable people among the merchants are the real strongmen." ”
At least compared to Ma Yun, Zong Qinghou, and Li Shufu, Zhong Ishizu is indeed a relatively low-key person, and almost does not appear in the media.
For example, in the well-known Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Conference in Zhejiang, Ma Yun is a regular customer. Zhong, who is also a Zhejiang businessman, has never participated. If it were not for the listing of Nongfu Spring, everyone may not know that there is such a person.
The beginning of this little-known history of the growth of the king of water sellers begins with the past events of Hangzhou.
In 1954, Zhong was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, to an intellectual family, the family was so poor that he dropped out of school in the 5th grade of primary school and was sent to learn masonry and later carpenter.
This experience, few people pay attention to the outside world, and Zhong himself has never talked about it much.
Until the year when the country resumed the college entrance examination, countless people ushered in a turning point in their fate, and Zhong was one of them.
However, because the learning was interrupted prematurely, Zhong did not even have "basic algebra knowledge", and it was naturally difficult to enter the university. In the two college entrance examinations, he was more than 20 points away from the enrollment line each time. It was not until 1977 that he was reluctantly admitted to the department of Chinese of the University of Electricity and Television.
Subsequently, after moving to the work of the Literary Association and Jiangnan, Zhong Huihui, a student of the 85th class of the University of Electricity and Television, joined the "Zhejiang Daily" and began his career as a literati.
When everyone recalls the 80s, "humanities" and "ideals" are the two most eye-catching keywords.
That year, Zhang Ruimin smashed 76 unqualified Haier refrigerators, Liu Chuanzhi was pondering Ni Guangnan's "Hanka" technology, and Ma Yun was elected as the president of the student union of Hangzhou Normal College.
Most people with knowledge have to look for an exit, and this exit, in modern society, is most likely wealth.
In the past 5 years of journalistic career, Zhong has come into contact with many entrepreneurs, and he has gradually developed the idea of doing business.
In 1988, taking advantage of the development fever in Hainan, Zhong bid farewell to the institutional work of Zhejiang Daily and began to go to sea.
He first tried to run a newspaper in Hainan, then opened a mushroom planting company, set up a stall, bought curtains, but all of them ended in losing money, and even once discouraged and wanted to go back to continue to be a journalist.
But fate still took care of him after all.
In 1991, with the support of his fellow villager Zong Qinghou, Zhong Shui won the general agent of Wahaha Oral Liquid Guangxi and Hainan. Among them, Hainan is a special economic zone, the wholesale price is particularly cheap, and Zhong Huihui, who was born with the business acumen of Zhejiang people, has a greater "appetite", so he dumps the goods to Guangdong, where the price is higher and the market is larger, and sells them at a price lower than the local market, and quickly obtains the first bucket of gold in his life.
This is what we commonly call string goods.
The first pot of gold for many big guys did not come to be glorious, and Zhong Was not exempt from vulgarity.
After all, paper could not contain the fire, and this kind of behavior that damaged public wealth and private interests angered Zong Qing, and he did not hesitate to take back Zhong Sui's agency rights, and the latter also knew the loss.
The "water war" between Zong and Zhong many years later also laid the groundwork here.
But in any case, this experience in Wahaha has given Zhong a deeper understanding of China's health care product market.
While attending a birthday party for a Hainan friend, Zhong found that the locals especially liked to drink a soup made of turtles and turtles. A flash of inspiration, feel such a good ingredient, why not package it as a health product for sale. Making soup is naturally not easy to transport and store, but pills can.
In 1993, with the first pot of gold earned from Wahaha, the 39-year-old Zhong Jian founded Hainan Yangshengtang Pharmaceutical.
The tall-sounding formula, coupled with the overwhelming advertising slogans such as "the grace of nurturing is unrequited", the Yangshengtang fish turtle pill became a hit, even in the 90s when various health products were flooded, it also occupied a place. Zhong Xiaoxiao successfully earned the second pot of gold in his life, and soon became a multi-millionaire.
How hot were turtles and tortoises back then?
In the Spring Festival Gala in 1997, Zhao Benshan's sketch, the line "Raise turtles, you cough 50,000 or 60,000 a year" is enough to prove it.
At this time, Zhong Shui, who had a lot of capital, finally made up his mind to return to the beverage industry and compete with his old owner Wahaha.
This is his journey to the most brilliant journey of his life.
02
Journey - Summit
People spend their whole lives looking back at childhood. For the older generation such as Zhong, the difficulties of their youth have not subsided after achieving great worldly success.
And Zhong's attitude, more or less also reflects the characteristics of Zhuji people, quite a bit of "lying down and tasting guts".
In 1996, Zhong, who had passed the age of confusion, returned to Hangzhou and founded the Zhejiang Qiandao Lake Yangshengtang Drinking Water Company, which was the predecessor of the later Nongfu Spring.
It's like saying goodbye to the old era such as crazy health care products and Hainan real estate.
Coincidentally, in June of this year, Ding Lei founded NetEase; a year later, Tencent was founded; another year, Alibaba was established; and another year, Baidu was established.
Everyone is waiting for the turn of the millennium, the moment when the dot-com bubble bursts. Gossip slow table.
At that time, there were already drinking water giants such as Master Kong and Wahaha in the market, and it was difficult to get ahead. Perhaps because of this, Nongfu Spring has taken a different path and promoted its own faction, which seems a little different.
Zhong Xiaoxiao abandoned the hard advertisement of traditional star endorsement, but used the feelings of micro-films to do publicity. It is also this form that makes it begin to penetrate the hearts of the people and let the people of the whole country remember the advertising words.
Some people say that the success of Nongfu Spring is not in drinking water, but in successful advertising.
Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet.
This is a marketing myth, and the three words that are a little sweet have become the biggest weapon of Nongfu Spring to call the pure water giant. Zhong Huihui, who is good at creating momentum, firmly grasps the core of the market - consumers, and a series of operations make competitors stunned.
And at a time when the major pure water giants are competing fiercely, the words "we do not produce water, we only do the porters of nature" were released again.
Nongfu Spring advertising slogan upgrade, source: Guosheng Securities
In 2000, a drinking water war that had been stored for a long time finally broke out.
It is said that until the day before the new product launch of Nongfu Spring, the entire company team has not yet come up with a topic that can detonate new products. But overnight, Zhong announced on the spot at a press conference that Nongfu Spring would no longer produce pure water, but would produce all natural water.
Immediately afterward, he counted the arguments that pure water was not beneficial to the human body, and published data on cell experiments, animal experiments, and plant experiments.
At this time, the leader of the pure water market, Zhong Shui's old owner, wahaha, who occupied 50% of China's pure water market, finally could not sit still, and united 69 water companies to criticize the mouth of Nongfu Mountain Spring.
This round of pure water and natural water controversy has attracted national attention, and major media have reported it. Nongfu Spring also took this opportunity to become famous.
Until July 9, 2000, Xinhua News Agency issued an expert reminder that it is not advisable to drink pure water for a long time. This concept is also widely accepted.
The dispute has finally come to an end.
The final result is known to everyone, Nongfu Spring became famous in the First World War, and quickly swept the country, until it became today's national brand.
Be a low-key person and do things in a high profile. It is most appropriate to describe Zhong Shui.
He is unambiguous in the expansion of the business map.
After the great success of Nongfu Spring, many beverage products have been launched, from drinking water and juice to sports drinks.
Many people may not have heard of Zhong Shui, but almost no one has not drunk Nongfu Spring, seen friends crazy tea pie, bought screams, and these are the brands of Nongfu Spring.
By 2001, Zhong had put his hand into the pharmaceutical field, and he held 98.38% of the shares of Yangshengtang and spent 17.1 million yuan to acquire 95% of the equity of the poorly managed Wantai Biologics. The company changed hands several times, and finally gradually stabilized in the hands of Zhong Shui.
On April 29, 2020, Wantai Bio landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and won 23 consecutive up-and-down boards, with an annual increase of 2230%, ranking first in the country. Although it continued to fluctuate after peaking in August last year, today's stock price is still more than 30 times the issue price, with a market value of 166.8 billion.
Source: Chioce
Through direct and indirect shareholding in Wantai Biotech, Zhong's shares were 75.15%, or 125.35 billion yuan, becoming the thickest stepping stone under Zhong's richest position.
Source: Choice
On September 8, 2020, Nongfu Spring went public, opening up 85.12%, and founder Zhong Sui's net worth reached HK$400 billion, surpassing Ma ma for the first time and becoming the new richest man in China.
At the close of the afternoon, Nongfu Spring's share price fell from 39.8 to HK$33, and Zhong's book wealth shrank, returning the position of the richest man to Ma Huateng.
He is also known as the "half-hour" richest man.
But in any case, after this battle, the old-school entrepreneur can no longer keep a low profile.
In the years when the myth of wealth has frequently emerged in technology companies, Zhong Xiaoxuan, a "food industry maker" from the traditional consumer industry, seems to have come out of nowhere. Until the crown of the richest man fell on him, the vast majority of people had never heard of the name.
People are more surprised by the point: why do people who sell water make so much money?
In fact, the production cost of drinking water, in addition to the preliminary water source survey, mineral resource transfer fees and machine depreciation costs, is almost zero cost.
The more you produce, the lower the cost.
Nongfu Spring is undoubtedly the most profitable porter in the world.
How profitable is it? Take a look at the prospectus of Nongfu Spring to know that the gross profit margin of packaged water is above 60%.
For example, we usually buy a bottle of Nongfu Spring for 2 yuan, and the profit is as high as one yuan and two.
Source: Prospectus
Nongfu Spring is not so much a porter of nature, but rather a printing machine of nature, but also a printing machine of Zhong Shu.
03
Scenery on the peaks
For a long time in the past, the position of China's richest man was ma huateng and Ma Yun taking turns to sit, alternating with each other, and you chased after me. Gradually, people began to stop caring about who the richest man was, and subconsciously felt that it was one of the two horses anyway.
At this time, the sudden appearance of Zhong Shui was a surprise for everyone.
From a nameless origin, he suddenly jumped to the richest man in China.
In a person's life, the opportunity to change their destiny may be three or two, and Zhong Is the one who has seized the opportunity. And in this Red Sea market for drinking water sprung up.
Do a little survey, in the case of not Baidu, now what are the drinking water ads you can remember?
Master Kang, Ice Dew, Nongfu Spring, Yibao, Wahaha?
Probably most people can only remember, "Nongfu Spring is a little sweet."
Today, this advertising slogan, which has been circulating for more than 20 years, has been deeply imprinted in everyone's mind. Nongfu Spring, China's most profitable drinking water company, has experienced a sharp correction and its market value is still 450 billion Hong Kong dollars.
As the biggest wealth of Zhong Shui, it can be said that Zhong Shui's value fluctuates with the decline of Nongfu Shan Quan's stock price.
Nongfu Spring stock price trend, source: Chioce
On February 17 last year, the threshold of 100 billion US dollars in the Forbes rich list ushered in Chinese for the first time, and Zhong Jingzuo surpassed Buffett and Zuckerberg with a wealth of 100.5 billion US dollars, equivalent to 650 billion yuan, ranking fifth in the world, and once again entered people's vision.
There is no doubt that he made history.
From "the richest man in half an hour" to the position of the richest man in the double list, from the listing of Nongfu Spring to the present, Zhong's "jianghu status" has become more and more stable.
However, getting up quickly and falling fast, Zhong's wealth value is as exciting as a roller coaster.
Since crossing the $100 billion threshold on Feb. 17, Nongfu Spring's stock price has fallen all the way to nearly 40% in early April. Zhong's wealth evaporated by 2,400 yuan in just one month, and at one point he fell to 17th in the world's richest list, ranking alongside Ma Huateng as China's richest man.
In June last year, due to the marketing of its white peach sparkling water "produced" from Fukushima, Japan, it was suspected of using nuclear pollution raw materials, and Nongfu Spring was deeply involved in the whirlpool of public opinion, and the stock price experienced a long period of gloom.
To this day, Zhong's wealth is still shrinking by about 100 billion yuan compared with last year's peak, but this has not affected his position as the richest man, because several other Internet giants have lost more in 2021...
It is rare and old, and looking back on Zhong's past experiences is like a novel worth reading repeatedly, which is endlessly evocative.
Today, China's drinking water market has long been a red sea, 80% of the share by Nongfu Spring, Yibao, Baishishan, Master Kong, Coca-Cola and Wahaha, each with a loyal consumer group, the imagination space is not much.
Can he and his farmer Shan Quan bring a new chapter to this book in the future?