With the slogan "Vitality 28, Sand Market Daily Chemical", it was popular all over the country in the 80s of last century, and Vitality 28 was also the first in the industry to launch an ultra-concentrated non-foaming washing powder suitable for machine washing.
In recent years, the vitality of domestic products rejuvenation 28 has also been invested by well-known enterprises and venture capital institutions such as Taikang Life, Sequoia China, and Challenger Capital, but the good times have not lasted long, and many problems such as arrears of employee wages, social security, dealer payments, etc. have been exposed.
Employees have suffered tens of millions of salary arrears,
Dealers cannot recover millions of goods
According to media reports, 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."
In the employee group of the "vitality family", Li Jianfei, chairman and general manager of Vitality 28, responded that "for the company's overall debt, there is a new team to enter the situation to conduct an in-depth investigation, and at the same time, there will 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. Employees didn't buy it.
On the other hand, dealers are faced with not only the inability to recover the payment, but also the inability to supply the goods. Ms. Zhao, a distributor, revealed that the current payment owed to it by Vitality 28, plus the advance of shopping guide wages and commodity rebates, totaled nearly one million yuan.
"It was out of stock for us in February, and there are only one or two items left in stock, and the rest are out of stock. Many of us dealers take out loans to do business, loan interest has to be paid, supply to supermarkets also has to cost, and out of stock and fines. Another dealer, Mr. Wang, said.
It is worth noting that Vitality 28's TikTok number also stopped updating in February this year.
Ms. Zhao also faced a more difficult situation, according to her description, Yonghui Supermarket froze Vitality 28's account due to arrears, while Ms. Zhao was responsible for the channel of Yonghui Supermarket in her area, and currently Yonghui Supermarket also froze Ms. Zhao's account, resulting in her inability to settle the payment. Ms. Zhao has sued Vitality Group in April this year, the trial began in May, and is currently awaiting the outcome of the trial.
Mr. Wang revealed that in May this year, Vitality 28 authorized foundries to ship directly to dealers. According to the content of the power of attorney provided, Vitality 28's main company, Vitality Group, may still owe money to the foundry. Regarding the phenomenon of direct shipment by the foundry, Ms. Zhao said that she had not taken the goods, firstly, Vitality 28 owed her money, and secondly, she believed that the products produced by the foundry later were "not quality guaranteed".
Favored by many capitals,
Why did Vitality 28 collapse overnight?
According to public information, Vitality 28 was founded in 1950, formerly known as Hubei Shashi Oil Factory, and was the first in the industry to launch an ultra-concentrated non-foaming washing powder suitable for machine washing in 1982, and landed on the A-share market in 1996. Unfortunately, the highlight did not last long, and from 1996 to 2016, it experienced being acquired by foreign capital, hidden in the snow, and changed hands three times.
Its highlight dates back to 2019, when Vitality 28 finally embarked on the road to revitalization. At that time, Li Jianfei, who had worked for Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckis, was the CEO, and successively received investment from Challenger Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital China and Taikang Life, with a cumulative financial fund of more than 2 billion yuan.
Since then, Vitality 28 has responded to capital expectations with its performance at a double growth rate. Public information shows that Vitality Group has gone from 100 million yuan in revenue in 2019 and 500 million yuan in 2020, and by 2021, it broke into the first echelon of domestic household cleaning brands, with sales as high as 2 billion yuan. In 2022, the valuation of Vitality Group has exceeded 10 billion yuan.
At its peak, Vitality Group had 3,000 employees, more than 1,000 dealers and more than 350,000 terminal outlets across the country. During this period, Vitality 28 successively entered the live broadcast room of Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao, and Crazy Little Yang Ge.
However, an acquisition made Vitality 28 fall from its peak again.
In 2022, Vitality Group completed the acquisition of Shanghai Kaimi. Shanghai Kaimi had hundreds of millions of contract disputes before it was acquired.
Obviously, Kaimi Technology is not an ideal acquisition target. According to the enterprise investigation, in August 2022, Kaimi Technology was listed by the Shanghai Second People's Court as a dishonest enforcer, which was a person with the ability to perform but refused to perform the obligations specified in the effective legal documents, and the applicant for enforcement was China Construction Eighth Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd., with the amount involved exceeding 100 million yuan. After the acquisition, Vitality intended to repay the debt, but due to the epidemic and the negotiated plan, it was finally rejected by Xi'an Kaimi on the grounds that it could not pass the Shaanxi Coal Board, resulting in the previous plan being completely disrupted, and China Construction Eighth Bureau sued Kaimi.
In August 2022, the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court issued a consumption restriction order against Shanghai Kaimi and Li Jianfei, the legal representative of the unit.
In February this year, Jingzhou TV also reported that the vitality group industrial park project in Jingzhou Economic Development Zone is under intensive construction, the vitality research and development complex building is about to enter the internal decoration stage, and the construction of a laundry detergent production line with an annual output of 100,000 tons, a detergent production line with an annual output of 100,000 tons, a hand sanitizer and shower gel production line with an annual output of 50,000 tons and a disinfectant production line with an annual output of 50,000 tons. Now that the capital chain is broken, capital cash flow has been lost, and the debt crisis is deep, and new factories may not be built.
73 years of old daily chemical, first acquired by foreign capital and then hidden by snow, and then by Sanan Optoelectronics backdoor listing operation almost stopped, and with the help of capital to embark on the road of rejuvenation, helpless to take a wrong step, fall again, is the classic of the past of domestic products, can only be an eternal memory? Why can't it be passed down from generation to generation?
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