Arrears of employee wages and dealer payments, the old daily chemical "vitality 28" has lost its vitality again
Interface News Reporter | Wu Rong
Interface News Editor | Xu Yue
The old daily chemical "Vitality 28" fell into the turmoil of unpaid wages.
A number of netizens broke the news on Douyin that 1,000 employees of Vitality 28 have not been paid since February, the reimbursement has not been paid for a longer time, and some dealers have not seen the payment. Some employees even wrote a whistleblower letter and released a salary solicitation video, saying, "Vitality 28 owes nearly 30 million to employees and shopping guide salaries, social security, medical insurance, etc., according to incomplete statistics; Cutting off employees' back roads and not agreeing to sign contact labor contracts with employees, resulting in difficulties in re-employment for a large number of employees."
Many netizens broke the news on Douyin that Vitality 28 owed wages
In these salary videos, you can see the response of Li Jianfei, chairman and general manager of Vitality 28.
He said in a group of employees called "Vitality Family": "For the company's overall debt, there is a new team to enter to deeply investigate the situation, and there will also be a more professional team to accept the company's management, the company is currently shareholders united to solve the problem, of course, the core problem is arrears of employee wages, social security, supplier arrears and dealer arrears." ”
In addition, Li Jianfei also reviewed the reasons for the rupture of the capital chain of Vitality 28, including the acquisition of Xi'an Kaimi Company, which is also an old daily chemical, which led to a large amount of capital being pressed; Second, because of the epidemic, various costs have skyrocketed; Setting up a Shanghai company to fully develop online sales is also a big expense; In addition, extensive management such as the pursuit of market share in recent years has also had a negative impact on the company.
In this regard, the employees did not buy it, but said that "Li Jianfei fooled the employees and used the employees as a means of capital games."
Interface news tried to energize 28 aspects, but the company's official website has shown that it cannot be opened, the customer service phone has been disabled, and the company's switchboard number has been in a busy signal. From the perspective of online stores, the vitality 28 Taobao store has no products, although the Jingdong store is operating normally, many products are out of stock, and its Douyin account has stopped updating since the beginning of the year.
All this seems to indicate that the company is currently in a "half-stop" state.
The Vitality 28 Taobao store is no longer available, and although the Jingdong store is still operating normally, many products are out of stock
As a once well-known daily chemical brand, the story of Vitality 28 dates back to the 50s of the last century.
Its predecessor is Hubei Shashi Oil Factory, began to produce synthetic detergents in the 70s of last century, launched ultra-concentrated non-foaming washing powder in 1982 and named "Vitality 28", and through the advertising fee on CCTV, let a "vitality 28, sand market daily chemical" advertising slogan is familiar to everyone. In the eighties and nineties of the last century, the market share of Vitality 28 was as high as 70%.
Unfortunately, the highlight moment did not last long, due to various reasons, from 1996 to 2016, it experienced being acquired by foreign capital, hidden in the snow, and changed hands three times, and vitality 28 lost its "vitality".
In 2017, Vitality 28 finally ushered in a new round of restart.
In that year, Jingzhou City and Thailand Anbao Group were deeply connected, and Thailand decided to invest 3 billion yuan to restart vitality28. In the same year, Jingzhou Vitality 28 Jia Chemical Co., Ltd. was registered, changing the business model of asset nationalization and establishing a new equity system. The new CEO is Li Jianfei, who has been with P&G and Reckitt Benckiser for many years.
Since 2019, Vitality 28 has successively received financing from Challenger Capital, Xinghan Capital and Sequoia China, and has begun a series of brand returns and rejuvenation actions.
Li Jianfei said in an interview with 36Kr that the first step in returning is to awaken consumers' brand memory, and the company mainly chooses offline channels in 3rd and 4th tier cities to reach users who once had feelings for Vitality 28, who are about 40-50 years old and are also the main group of people for home and cleaning; The second step is brand rejuvenation and rapid product upgrade, including launching products that are segmented in washing scenes and functions, and making articles on fragrances. With these, it will also be revealed on social platforms where young people gather, including cooperation with anchors such as Li Jiaqi.
Vitality 28 new products
Vitality 28 cooperated with Li Jiaqi anchor
This series of actions seems to let the outside world see the possibility of the old domestic goods setting sail again.
Li Jianfei once said that the company's sales in 2019 were about 100 million yuan, reaching more than 500 million yuan in 2020, and the national online and offline sales exceeded 2 billion in 2021, and the sales target exceeded 4 billion in 2022. Data from Oteo International Consulting also shows that from June 2021 to May 2022, Vitality 28 squeezed into the top ten retail sales of laundry detergent brands on the whole network.
But the ill-fated story of Vitality 28 is not over.
On February 10, 2022, Vitality 28 underwent an investor change, and the six new investment entities were Sequoia Capital, Challenger Capital and Star Han Capital, and these three institutions were shareholders of Vitality 28. After this change, Li Jianfei's shareholding ratio decreased from 30.705% to 25.118%, and Sequoia Capital's shareholding ratio reached 35%, becoming the largest shareholder of Vitality 28.
On February 11, 2022, the day after the change of shareholders of Vitality 28, a company named Shanghai Kaimi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kaimi Technology") also changed its shareholders, and the original sole shareholder Xi'an Kaimi Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xi'an Kaimi") withdrew, adding 5 new investment entities. These five entities are also investors in Sequoia and Challenger Capital, which coincidentally are also new shareholders of Vitality 28.
The Tianyancha APP also shows that the legal person and chairman of Kaimi Technology is also Li Jianfei, the legal person and chairman of Vitality 28, but he does not yet hold shares, but is 100% owned by Sequoia and Challenger Capital.
To put it simply, Sequoia Capital invested in Vitality 28 and increased its capital to become a major shareholder, and at the same time, together with Challenger Capital, acquired its wholly-owned subsidiary Kaimi Technology from Xi'an Kaimi, which was helmed by Li Jianfei and held by Sequoia Holdings.
Vitality 28 did not disclose the reason for the acquisition. However, from the perspective of business, Xi'an Kaimi, the former parent company of Kaimi Technology, has a lot of intersection with Vitality 28.
According to the official website, Xi'an Kaimi was founded in 1997, is the largest manufacturer of environmentally friendly liquid washing products in China, with seven series, including Polyester King Cleaning Clothes, Befen Personal Care, Healthy Meal Wash and Power Clean Cleaning, Baby Products, Cleaning Products and Other Products, with more than 100 varieties, involving household daily use, personal care and industrial washing. Kaimi Technology is engaged in marketing promotion, Internet sales and other businesses, and this is probably one of the intentions of the acquisition.
Nevertheless, Kaimi Technology may not be an ideal acquisition target. According to self-media "fast-moving consumer goods" reports, before the acquisition, the company was in a debt crisis.
According to the Tianyancha APP, in August 2022, Kaimi Technology was listed by the Shanghai Second People's Court as a dishonest enforcer, which was an ability to perform but refused to perform the obligations determined in the effective legal documents, and the applicant for enforcement was China Construction Eighth Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd., and the amount involved exceeded 100 million yuan, and this 100 million yuan was the final payment of the project owed by Kaimi Technology to China Construction Eighth Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd.
Kaimi Technology was listed as a dishonest enforcer by the Shanghai Second People's Court
According to the above reports, these debts were made clear to all parties before the acquisition, and Li Jianfei and the various capital parties were also aware. Originally, according to the acquisition plan, it was enough to repay the debt after the acquisition, but when the epidemic came, Shanghai was locked down, and the previously proposed acquisition solution was rejected by Xi'an Kaimi on the grounds that it did not pass the board of directors of Shaanxi Coal, which led to a series of turmoil such as the creditors suing Li Jianfei, a legal person of Kaimi Technology.
The same daily chemical brand, the story of Vitality 28 is difficult not to think of Hillhouse Capital's investment in Blue Moon.
In 2006, Hillhouse Capital Zhang Lei persuaded Blue Moon Luo Qiuping to enter the new laundry category under the pressure of losses, and bet on the blank in the domestic laundry detergent market, so that for a long time later, Blue Moon became the first in China's laundry detergent market share, and successfully listed in 2020, and Hillhouse also gained a lot.
But Vitality 28, Sequoia and Challenger Capital may not have been so lucky. Up to now, for the turmoil such as Vitality 28 wage arrears, Challenger Capital has not replied to the interface news. From the level of vitality 28 alone, it was difficult to rebuild the brand in the face of the already fragmented care products market, but now that the debt has broken the capital chain, it may be difficult for this old daily chemical company to turn over again.