撰写Targeting Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou
Rumors of physical condition
February 22 afternoon
The official Weibo of Wahaha Group released a statement:
Recently, the company has received inquiries and concerns from people from all walks of life about the physical condition of Mr. Zong Qinghou, the chairperson of the company. Mr. Zong Qinghou is indeed receiving treatment in the hospital due to physical reasons, and is currently in stable condition. Wahaha Group’s various businesses are operating normally. Thank you for your concern!
According to reports, Zong Qinghou, who was born in December 1945, is nearly 80 years old. It is reported that he was admitted to Shao Yifu Hospital due to serious illness before the Spring Festival.
From a school-run factory selling water, Zong Qinghou has gradually grown into a leading Chinese food and beverage enterprise. He has always been regarded as one of the representatives of the first generation of entrepreneurs in Hangzhou and one of the iconic figures in Chinese business history.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
After Zong Qinghou graduated from high school, in order to reduce the burden on his family, he worked odd jobs to subsidize his family. At the age of 18, he went to Zhoushan Mamu Farm to engage in heavy labor. A year later, he moved to Shaoxing Tea Factory, where he spent 14 hard and monotonous years. Zong Qinghou said that these 14 years of experience have allowed him to exercise his body, hone his will, and laid the foundation for setting up a business in the future.
In 1979, Zong Qinghou took over his mother’s position according to the policy and returned to his hometown of Hangzhou, where he had been away for many years. He worked as a worker in the school-run factory and used active ideas to make money for the school and enterprise. Until 1987, the school-run enterprise distribution department in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou was established. Zong Qinghou was hired as a manager. In the first year, he relied on selling popsicles, soda, stationery, etc., and exceeded the profit of 220,000 yuan. The road to entrepreneurship has since officially begun.
In 1989, Zong Qinghou realized the importance of developing new products from practice. According to the problem that children did not like to eat at that time, he developed "Wahaha Children’s Nutrient Solution" and established Hangzhou Wahaha Nutritional Food Factory. At that time, most companies did not have the concept of advertising. Zong Qinghou advertised on TV and newspapers and quickly opened up the market.
In order to expand production capacity, Wahaha Nutritional Food Factory merged with the then insolvent Hangzhou Canned Food Factory in 1991 to establish the Hangzhou Wahaha Food Group Company. As a result of "small fish eat big fish", the old state-run factory with debts of more than 40 million yuan quickly turned into a profit, and Wahaha expanded its own team.
As a representative of the first generation of private enterprises, Wahaha has created many miracles – founded in 1987, the output value exceeded 100 million yuan in 1990, the output value exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2003, the revenue reached 78.28 billion yuan in 2013, 2015-2020, the company’s performance hovered around 46 billion yuan. In 2021, it began to improve.
In 2022, the company’s sales reached 51.202 billion yuan.
Although this figure has fallen by about 700 million yuan compared with 2021, if the horizon is stretched, Wahaha seems to have stopped the downward trend and emerged from the trough since 2014.
At the 2021 Boao Forum for Chinese Entrepreneurs, Zong Qinghou said: "We are all poor people. We became rich first when we started our own business. Now we need to improve our own grades, be respected by doing good deeds and helping others get rich, and play our own sense of responsibility and leadership."
On March 23, 2023, Zong Qinghou ranked 121st in the "2023 Hurun Global Rich List" with a wealth of 100 billion yuan.
Comprehensive: Wahaha official Weibo, surging news, daily economic news, Xinhua News Agency, orange persimmon interaction, interface news
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