Background
Zong Qinghou was born in 1945, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Zong is a native of Zhejiang.
庆后 宗
Zong Qinghou was born in 1945, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Zong is a native of Zhejiang.
Zong has had little formal education. After graduating from secondary school, Zong worked at the Zhoushan salt farm.
Although lacking formal education, Zong has the spirit of an entrepreneur. As a young man, Zong spent 17 years on Zhejiang state farms under Mao’s drive to bring intellectuals and urban youth to the countryside. In 1987, he was hired to run the failing business. With two elderly workers and a US$16 900 debt, he launched Wahaha children’s nutritional drinks, which became an instant hit among hard-to-please ‘little emperors.’ What had started as a business to distribute fizzy soft drinks, ice and stationery, and produce milk drinks for distribution has under Zong’s autocratic style and workaholic ethic grown into the largest beverage company in the country. Today, Wahaha (the company is named after a word in Chinese that sounds like an infant laughing) leads the Chinese beverage industry in scale, profits, and equity ratio. The generous tax breaks the company enjoyed as a school-owned firm helped, of course, but over the years, the company under the much-admired leadership of Zong has launched more than 20 beverage lines.
A joint venture Wahaha entered into with Groupe Danone in 1996 involved the inward investment of US$70 million in five Wahaha companies in exchange for 51 percent Groupe Danone ownership in each of the companies. The benchmark agreement gave the joint venture exclusive rights of production, distribution, and sales of products under the Wahaha brand. This investment has helped Wahaha not only to upgrade its equipment but also to expand production. Collaboration had grown into 39 joint venture entities by 2007. However in the same year, the relationship soured when Danone attempted to gain control of the company. Zong, who had been left to manage the business without any intervention from Danone, resigned as chairman of the joint ventures on 5 June 2007.
Zong has become one of the most influential entrepreneurs in China and is regarded as a hero in the country a David that is willing to take on Goliath. In 2004, his company introduced Future Cola after a year of development, as a local option to international brands Coca Cola and Pepsi. Even though Future Cola is in third place in the market, its sales are half of Pepsi’s and one-fourth of the market leader, Coca Cola. Future Cola has also been shipped to the USA. Zong says he does not intend to advertise in the USA or actively promote Future Cola, leaving that to its distributor, tiny Manpolo International Trading Co., a small import/export firm based in New York’s Chinatown. The cola is targeted to appeal to the patriotism of the overseas Chinese populations and the initial focus is on New York City and Los Angeles, two cities with some of the largest Chinese ethnic groups.
Though Zong’s official title is general manager and chairman of the board, everyone knows he is the only boss who matters. He tastes every new product and works 16-hour days. It is his dedication to detail and his work ethic, combined with bold and aggressive marketing techniques, that has steered Wahaha to be not only one of China’s largest privately held businesses, with plants in 28 provinces but also to be present in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Zong believes that educated people are not fit to be entrepreneurs as their knowledge makes them cautious in taking chances. He himself has only a junior high school education and admires the likes of Bill Gates, a Harvard dropout and Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong tycoon who had little formal schooling. In 2006 Forbes magazine ranked Zong as China’s twenty-third richest man, with an estimated personal wealth of US$1 billion.
Zong gained wide support as he played the role of "David" against a French "Goliath" gobbling up Chinese companies. However, with the revelation of his green card in 2008, public perceptions changed and his reputation suffered. In 2013, he stated that because he did not re-enter the U.S. for several years, his status was thus deemed abandoned.
He is married to Shi Youzhen and they have one child, a daughter, Kelly Zong. Shi is purchasing manager at Wahaha.