Wahaha Zong Qing passed away, and Zong Fuli's road to succession may not be smooth

On February 25, Wahaha released an obituary, and Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of the group, died at 10:30 on the same day at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment.

After the death of Zong Qinghou, Zong Fuli, as the successor, will lead Wahaha, a commercial giant, to where it will go, which has attracted much attention from the outside world.

According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, on February 23, Hangzhou Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes, and Zong Qinghou stepped down as the legal representative, executive director, and manager, and was replaced by his daughter Zong Fuli.

According to incomplete statistics, in the Wahaha system, Zong Fuli has been associated with hundreds of enterprises, of which 91 are in existence, including Hangzhou Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Wahaha Very Cola Beverage Co., Ltd., Hongsheng Beverage Group Co., Ltd., etc., most of which are subsidiaries of Wahaha Group.

Source: Tianyancha

Hangzhou state-owned assets hold 46% of the shares

However, Zong Fuli's succession road may not be smooth.

Succession has always been a major problem for entrepreneur families, and the succession of a company often includes two levels: equity and management.

From the perspective of equity, although the founder and chairman of Wahaha Group is Zong Qinghou, its largest shareholder is Hangzhou Shangcheng District Cultural and Commercial Tourism Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shangcheng Cultural and Commercial Tourism Holdings"), accounting for 46% of the shares. The company is 100% controlled by Shangcheng District Finance Bureau, Shangcheng District State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Shangcheng District State-owned Capital Operation Company, and is wholly state-owned by Hangzhou Shangcheng District.

Zong Qinghou himself holds 29.4% of the shares of Wahaha Group, making it the second largest shareholder, while the Wahaha Employee Stock Ownership Association holds the remaining 24.6% of the shares. This shareholding structure may be different from the impression of ordinary people.

Source: Tianyancha

From the perspective of management rights, Zong Qinghou, due to his status as the founder and the possibility that the Wahaha Employee Stock Ownership Association may act in concert with him, he firmly holds the right to speak in Wahaha Group, and it is said that he needs to sign and approve the purchase of a car of 100,000 yuan by the subsidiary.

Zong Qinghou's only daughter, Zong Fuli, has not previously obtained direct equity and management rights at the group level. Even if he inherits all of his father's 29.4% stake, there are doubts about whether Wahaha Group can achieve the same level of control as his father.

It is worth noting that Hangzhou state-owned assets have plans to sell their shares in Wahaha Group.

According to the information of Fanfanxun Biaobao, Baidu's bidding information query platform, Hangzhou Shangcheng State-owned Investment Holdings conducted a tender in July 2023 for the equity value assessment and legal services for the proposed transfer of 46% of the equity of Wahaha Group.

However, there is no new information on the progress of the incident since then.

If this part of the equity is taken over by an external institution, Zong Fuli may face greater challenges. If the founder and team of Wahaha take over, they will also need to come up with a huge amount of cash, and the pressure will not be small.

Zong Fuli controls the core supply chain

At present, with taking over the position of executive director of Wahaha e-commerce, Zong Fuli has become more and more important in the entire Wahaha Group.

An investor said that supply chain and e-commerce are one of the important sectors in the development of China's consumer enterprises. In Wahaha Group, the corresponding is Hongsheng Beverage Group and Wahaha E-commerce.

According to the data, Hongsheng Beverage has invested in 37 companies, involving printing and packaging, e-commerce, dairy, food, beverage and other businesses, most of which involve the production of ingredients in the upstream industry chain of beverages, high-end equipment manufacturing, printing and packaging, etc.

In other words, Zong Fuli, who has worked in Wahaha for many years, has held the core supply chain of this company in his hands.

An investor in the consumer sector said that in the era of new consumption, the battle between enterprises is essentially a battle for the supply chain. "The development of a good and fast industrial chain is not only the core barrier of consumer enterprises, but also the key to quickly reduce costs and build a city wall. “

In 2007, Zong Fuli, who took over the helm of Hongsheng Beverage, has developed Hongsheng Beverage into more than 40 subsidiaries and more than 100 modern beverage production lines. At the time of taking over, Hongsheng Beverage only had one beverage filling line.

According to the 2022 Zhejiang Top 100 Manufacturing List, Hongsheng Beverage is on the list with an operating income of 10.42 billion yuan and a net profit of 1.47 billion yuan.

The e-commerce sector is a digitally driven sector that every consumer company can't avoid. The above-mentioned investors said that the construction of the supply chain also needs continuous digital upgrading, including the use of big data to optimize production, warehousing, sales and service, so as to realize the reconstruction of "people, goods and places". In addition, there is also smart logistics, which will become the cornerstone of Wahaha's digital empire.

For the e-commerce business, Zong Qinghou has been rejecting it in the early years, and it has not changed until recent years. Zong Qinghou once said that e-commerce is a new thing that will not last long. "No matter how strong e-commerce is, it can't defeat Wahaha's joint sales body. ”

After years of deep cultivation, Wahaha's joint sales body has nearly 10,000 dealers, hundreds of thousands of wholesalers, and more than 3 million retail terminals. But after the performance went downhill, Zong Qinghou also had to make changes.

In 2020, Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd. was established, and at that time it said that it would build four e-commerce platforms, including a health care product e-commerce platform, a food and beverage e-commerce platform, a cross-border e-commerce platform and Habao Amusement Park.

However, as of now, Wahaha has not succeeded in the e-commerce business. Now, after taking over the position of executive director of Wahaha e-commerce, Zong Fuli has also become the focus of attention on how to win this turnaround battle.

Zong Qinghou gave Zong Fuli a score of 90

When participating in the special planning of CCTV's financial "Dialogue" in 2023 last year, Zong Qinghou talked about the issue of succession. He said that it is more difficult to keep a business than to start a business, and said that he will not retire, but will take a back seat, let the young people charge in front, watch from behind, and turn around when they deviate and come up with some ideas.

At that time, Zong Qinghou said that he was cultivating successors, transforming the process, introducing a post responsibility system, setting up two new deputy general managers, and letting his daughter be the general manager, and also set up two centers, and each area also set up a general manager, and built a set of management systems as a whole.

Zong Qinghou talked about his daughter in a talk show, saying that one-third of Wahaha's enterprises are managed by Zong Fuli, and Zong Fuli's performance in Wahaha Group can be scored 90 points.

Industry insiders have commented that Zong Fuli has innovated the enterprise inheritance model and set a model for the new generation of succession.

Regarding such a label, Zong Fuli said: "In fact, my thoughts have always been pure and simple. The reason why I chose the workshop as the starting point was because I felt that I didn't understand it and needed to explore. After exploring, I found that if I want to do a good job in the industry, I must innovate, including new products and new models. ”

She hopes to make something new for China's beverage industry, "It takes time to cultivate, look at fate, look at timing, and also look at strength." Zong Fuli said.

(Source: Science and Technology Daily, Upstream News, etc.)