Recently, Inner Mongolia Wahaha Food Co., Ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes, Zong Qinghou stepped down as the legal representative, executive director, and withdrew from the ranks of shareholders, Sun Shutian stepped down as general manager, and added Zong Fuli as a shareholder and served as the legal representative, executive director and general manager.
Since Zong Qinghou's death at the end of February this year, three months have passed now, Zong Fuli has taken over a number of companies under her father's name, and is gradually becoming the new head of Wahaha.
Zong Fuli's leadership role has been re-consolidated
It has taken over more than 100 enterprises after Zongqing
According to public information, Inner Mongolia Wahaha Food Co., Ltd. was established in April 2006 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, and its business scope includes beverage production, production of plastic packaging containers and tools for food, food sales, etc. Shareholder information shows that Zong Fuli and Du Jianying hold 60% and 40% of the shares respectively.
This adjustment of the shareholding structure undoubtedly also declares to the market that Zong Fuli's dominant position in the company has been further consolidated.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, Zong Fuli has taken over the legal representative of 15 Wahaha-related companies, including Hangzhou Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Wahaha Guangsheng Investment Co., Ltd. According to industrial and commercial data, Zong Qinghou currently has 202 enterprises under his name, of which 141 enterprises serve as legal representatives.
According to incomplete statistics, up to now, Zong Fuli has worked in 118 companies, including Hangzhou Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Wahaha Very Cola Beverage Co., Ltd., Hongsheng Beverage Group Co., Ltd., etc. Among the above-mentioned enterprises, Zong Fuli served as the legal representative of a total of 25 enterprises, and held senior management positions such as chairman, director and executive director in the remaining enterprises.
Zong Fuli once said at the memorial service of Zong Qinghou: "In the hands of my father, Wahaha has successfully found a way to survive, and this road for me is to unswervingly complete my father's legacy and live up to the heavy responsibilities and expectations on my shoulders." Once, his shoulders were my watchtower to see the world, and now my hands will be his pen cultivators to continue to write the legend of the drink. ”
Now it seems that Zong Fuli did not disappoint, Wahaha had exploded on the Internet in March, and the number of Douyin fans in Wahaha's official flagship store has risen sharply since February 25, with a maximum of more than 700,000 fans in one day. According to Feigua data, the sales of Wahaha brand products in Douyin e-commerce began to soar on February 25 and peaked on March 4, with sales of 5 million to 7.5 million yuan, an increase of more than 10 times compared with February 25.
How did Zong Fuli take over her father's scepter?
Zong Qinghou praised his daughter Zong Fuli to the public many times before her death, saying that she was already a mature and excellent entrepreneur.
Although Zong Qinghou's business baton was handed over to his daughter, Zong Fuli's succession does not mean that she will be able to live here.
While inheriting her father's business empire, Zong Fuli also showed her unique business acumen and leadership skills.
For example, in terms of channels. The reason why Wahaha has been undefeated for many years is based on a strong dealer channel. Zong Qinghou knew this well during his lifetime, so his last public appearance before his death was to personally commend the country's outstanding dealers and salespeople, and announced that he would increase the incentive for them.
Zong Qinghou's emphasis on channels has also been continued after Zong Fuli took over. Under the leadership of Zong Fuli, Wahaha began to strengthen the refined management of sales terminals, optimize the dealer system, and vigorously lay offline terminal channels.
In March this year, a letter signed by Wahaha "to all sales staff" circulated on the Internet. The letter mentions, "Now is the moment when Wahaha is receiving unprecedented attention, and consumers everywhere are rushing to buy our products. Supermarkets take the initiative to give the best display position, terminal wholesale actively purchases, enterprises and institutions enthusiastically group buy, and there are many people who want to join our distribution team. ”
The letter also emphasized that in order to support this sales campaign, the company has introduced the maximum margin incentive policy...... To achieve the goal of "making Wahaha products visible and available to everyone...... Terminal distribution is a tough battle, and it is a big test for Wahaha salesmen.
In short, the core idea of the letter is that Wahaha needs to keep up with the latest market trends and quickly fill the gap in terminal sales, so as to solve the difficulties faced by consumers when buying Wahaha drinks in supermarkets and convenience stores.
To this end, Wahaha is now also fully committed to offline freezers. Some agents said that at present, Wahaha's offline terminal freezer delivery volume can reach dozens of units in a county. It is understood that some of them are smart freezers, which help to dynamically monitor the number of brand goods.
These signs are showing that Zong Fuli, who officially took over Wahaha, is speeding up the reconstruction of offline channels. This is also considered by the outside world to be Zong Fuli's first fire after taking over.
In addition to speeding up the laying of terminal freezers, from recruiting salesmen, optimizing dealer management, to improving dealer efficiency, launching new products, and strengthening marketing, Zong Fuli has shown her ultimate pursuit of details and keen insight into market changes, and also let the market see that Wahaha is radiating new vitality in the era of Zong Fuli.
Wahaha in the era of Zong Fuli
Do you still want to count on AD calcium milk?
Behind the new atmosphere, Zong Fuli and Wahaha are also facing many challenges.
At present, although Wahaha still maintains its leading position in the market of old categories such as AD calcium milk, purified water, and eight-treasure porridge, consumers and Zong Fuli know in their hearts that Wahaha cannot always count on a few old ones, and it needs to launch cross-era products to the market, only in this way can we retain a new generation of consumers and break the curse of "aging".
Although we do not know what kind of innovative products Zong Fuli will be able to lead Wahaha to output next, it is worth mentioning that before Zong Fuli officially took over Wahaha, she had already shown her innovative thinking and achievements to the market.
For example, in 2016, Zong Fuli founded the beverage brand "KELLYONE" named after her English name "KELLY", which is also the first brand created by Zong Fuli "de-Wahaha". As a brand independent of Wahaha, in the process of KELLYONE's brand promotion, Zong Fuli did not rely on Wahaha's resources to promote, and even changed Wahaha's "rural areas surrounding cities" model in channel play, but started online and entered the first- and second-tier markets through young people.
In the first few years of the KELLYONE brand, to be precise, the performance of the brand has not improved much until 2020, focusing on two relatively high-end beverages, customized NFC juice and Yicha sugar-free tea drink, focusing on niche consumer groups. It wasn't until 2020 that KELLYONE's first "bubble+" product, Angry Bobo Soda Sparkling Water, debuted and tripled its sales in the second year.
(Source: Weibo @KELLYONE_OFFICIAL)
THEN, KELLYONE HAS SUCCESSIVELY LAUNCHED A VARIETY OF "BUBBLE +" PRODUCTS SUCH AS ANGRY BOBO MILK, THREE-AND-A-HALF SPARKLING WINE, CHACHA CHA QI, ETC., AND IT CAN BE SEEN FROM ITS PRODUCT LAYOUT THAT KELLYONE IS TRYING TO BREAK THE SITUATION WITH THE "BUBBLE +" CATEGORY.
Although compared with Wahaha AD calcium milk, nutrition express, eight-treasure porridge, etc., KELLYONE and these products can be said to be not on the same level, whether it is traffic, volume sales or others, but then again, Wahaha's market position is not something that a new generation of brands can casually reach. However, if you look at KELLYONE purely from the perspective of an emerging brand, at least it is not a problem to be above the passing level.
All in all, as Zong Fuli once said in an interview: "It is very difficult for a career to rely on 'keeping', and it needs to continue to develop and create." ”
For Zong Fuli, the 50 billion yuan business empire left behind by Zong Qinghou is both an honor and a burden. In the future, under the helm of Zong Fuli, where will the giant ship Wahaha go? Will Wahaha have such a cross-era classic product as AD calcium milk? We'll see.