On November 18, Wahaha Group held its 30th anniversary celebration in Hangzhou. Thirty years ago, Zong Qinghou personally hung the sign for Wahaha's "Hangzhou Shangcheng District School-run Enterprise Distribution Department" in front of a small building on Qingtai Street. Over time, the once obscure roadside shop has grown to have nearly 80 production bases across 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, with total assets nearing 40 billion yuan, ranking first in the beverage industry for 19 consecutive years, and a brand value of 53.386 billion yuan. At this milestone, Wahaha also initiated multi-faceted cooperation with Alipay... Wahaha × Alipay Launch Multi-faceted Cooperation At the 30th anniversary celebration, Peng Yijie, Alibaba Group partner and Vice President of Ant Financial, also attended, and the two parties announced a joint marketing cooperation. Previously, Wahaha had already conducted trial cooperation with Alipay on two super single products: Nutrition Express and AD Calcium Milk. This cooperation between Alipay and Wahaha is a multi-faceted marketing partnership. It is reported that both parties will invest significant resources in a series of joint marketing campaigns. Alipay will provide cash subsidies and online traffic diversion for these activities, while Wahaha will offer bottle label resources as traffic entry points. The cooperation includes daily bottle label scanning marketing, nationwide offline activities, and year-round event marketing. After 30 years of development, Wahaha's distribution channels have spread across the country. In an era where mobile payment is a trend and competition is fierce, cooperating with Wahaha will bring more users to Alipay. For Wahaha, partnering with the internet empowers its brand upgrade and actively explores digital marketing. Wahaha × Alipay is undoubtedly a win-win move. Additionally, Nutrition Express, AD Calcium Milk, Future Cola, and Wahaha juice series have already launched with red envelopes, and Alipay will distribute red envelopes on the bottles of Wahaha's full range of beverages that will soon be available. In the future, Wahaha will expand its cooperation with Alipay to all product categories, bringing even more generous benefits to users of both parties. Zong Qinghou: Wahaha Will Focus on Developing Healthy Foods in the Future At the 30th anniversary celebration, Wahaha Group founder Zong Qinghou also reviewed Wahaha's path of entrepreneurship and innovation. "The initial establishment of the school-run distribution department was merely to subsidize education funds, and it had little status. Others looked down on us, so I told my employees that we must respect ourselves," Zong Qinghou said, and that is how he led Wahaha for thirty years. In three years, output value exceeded 100 million; a hundred-day merger; a production line built in 28 days. Reflecting on the past entrepreneurial journey, Zong Qinghou was filled with emotion: "Starting a business is always the most difficult at the beginning. When you have nothing, all you have is drive." Zong Qinghou said, "Zhejiang people have pioneering courage and wisdom, and our generation relies on the spirit of self-improvement." At the Wahaha 30th anniversary celebration site Zong Qinghou believes that Wahaha's success today is inseparable from two core factors: first, the policy of reform and opening up, and second, the company's continuous pursuit of innovation. Thirty years, in Zong Qinghou's eyes, is the prime of youth: "Wahaha will still take root in the beverage industry, shifting from a previous focus on food safety to, while continuing to focus on safety, placing more emphasis on investment and development of healthy foods." Zong Qinghou believes that the beverage and food industry will always be a sunrise industry because food is the paramount necessity of the people, and the quality of food directly affects people's well-being: "The future is still full of potential." The nationally pioneering strain workshop is Wahaha's effort to break the shackles of 'foreign strains' for Chinese strains. Wahaha also plans to build a science and innovation town, attracting talent, pooling funds, and introducing mature foreign technologies to help small enterprises develop together, uniting Zhejiang enterprises to jointly develop high-tech and create a Zhejiang brand of China's intelligent manufacturing. Last year, Wahaha cooperated with Israel and obtained over 1,000 technology transfer achievements. "Not only related to our industry, but we will also introduce scientific and technological achievements with broad practical applications," Zong Qinghou said. While focusing on its main business, Wahaha is also actively responding to the 'Made in China 2025' strategy, transforming Chinese manufacturing into Chinese creation, and resolutely advancing into high-end equipment manufacturing and other fields, injecting new connotations into the enterprise under new historical conditions. Wahaha Will Also Consider Listing at an Appropriate Time During the Q&A session before the 30th anniversary celebration, when asked about Wahaha's listing, Zong Qinghou also changed his old tune of "Wahaha doesn't need money and won't list," saying: Listing can accelerate enterprise development, and Wahaha will also consider listing at an appropriate time. As a former richest person in China, the Wahaha Group led by Zong Qinghou is a company that has not gone public. Prior to this, Zong Qinghou repeatedly stated that Wahaha was not short of money and had no need for financing through listing. "We have 10 billion in cash," "There are many listed companies that commit fraud"... Zong Qinghou felt that although Wahaha was not listed, its corporate governance level was far higher than some listed companies. Zong Qinghou believed that using capital's money made him uneasy. "People say we are foolish and don't know how to use bank money. I think it's better to be stable. Wahaha is taking small steps and running fast; we firmly avoid doing things we are not confident about." Wahaha has 15,000 shareholders, but the law stipulates that the number of shareholders must not exceed 200 before a company goes public, and integrating all of them for listing is a huge project. If it lists, this will be the biggest obstacle. In recent years, there has been a wave of IPOs in the food industry, but there are still leading industry enterprises that do not list. Laoganma does not list and remains as assertive as ever, adhering to the original intention of "no tax evasion, no loans, no debt, no listing"; the lone wolf Zhong Shanshan remains unconventional, focusing solely on products and marketing; Zong Qinghou also continues to lead Wahaha in small steps and fast runs. This time, at Wahaha's 30th anniversary, Zong Qinghou's change of tune gives us more anticipation for the food capital market. On the other hand, it also shows that the beverage empire Wahaha is quietly undergoing changes. "Our enterprise should contribute to the country's prosperity and strength, helping China transition from an economic powerhouse to an economic power, and from a manufacturing powerhouse to a manufacturing power." This is Zong Qinghou's summary of Wahaha's next goal, and also a beautiful vision for China's growing prosperity and strength. Source: New Dairy, Food Entrepreneur, compiled by New Distribution -END-