---
title: "More Than Just Beverages! Wahaha Has Established a New Robotics Company, with Zong Qinghou as Chairman!"
description: "When it comes to Wahaha, our impression might still be stuck on its mineral water spokesperson Wang Leehom, who has remained unchanged since 1999. Indeed, Wahaha's classic products have rarely changed their packaging over the years, giving consumers a sense of being old-fashioned. However, Wahaha has always been at the forefront of industrial manufacturing in China. In 2012, Wahaha encountered a development crisis, as its revenue turned negative for the first time that year. This was a significant blow to the rapidly growing company, but the signs of this crisis had already appeared earlier. The soft drink industry is inherently a retail business that relies on high volume and low margins, and in recent years, raw material prices have been rising, increasing the market risks of investing in and developing new products."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2019-04-01"
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# More Than Just Beverages! Wahaha Has Established a New Robotics Company, with Zong Qinghou as Chairman!

> When it comes to Wahaha, our impression might still be stuck on its mineral water spokesperson Wang Leehom, who has remained unchanged since 1999. Indeed, Wahaha's classic products have rarely changed their packaging over the years, giving consumers a sense of being old-fashioned. However, Wahaha has always been at the forefront of industrial manufacturing in China. In 2012, Wahaha encountered a development crisis, as its revenue turned negative for the first time that year. This was a significant blow to the rapidly growing company, but the signs of this crisis had already appeared earlier. The soft drink industry is inherently a retail business that relies on high volume and low margins, and in recent years, raw material prices have been rising, increasing the market risks of investing in and developing new products.

When it comes to Wahaha, our impression might still be stuck on its mineral water spokesperson Wang Leehom, who has remained unchanged since 1999. Indeed, Wahaha's classic products have rarely changed their packaging over the years, giving consumers a sense of being old-fashioned. However, Wahaha has always been at the forefront of industrial manufacturing in China.

In 2012, Wahaha encountered a development crisis, as its revenue turned negative for the first time that year. This was a significant blow to the rapidly growing company, but the signs of this crisis had already appeared earlier. The soft drink industry is inherently a retail business that relies on high volume and low margins, and in recent years, raw material prices have been rising, increasing the market risks of investing in and developing new products.

Facing this situation, Wahaha's chairman Zong Qinghou remained rational, saying: "As a leading enterprise in the beverage industry, if we can't even achieve 20% annual growth, it means the market capacity is no longer that large. Numerous beverage companies will engage in vicious competition in a limited market; hurting the enemy by a thousand costs yourself eight hundred. If vicious competition starts, the entire industry will have problems. The home appliance industry is a good example."

He believed there were only two ways to resolve the dilemma: one was to open up the international market as Coca-Cola did when facing market weakness, and the other was to achieve diversified transformation. Clearly, Zong Qinghou chose the latter, opening up the market and laying the groundwork for future expansion into liquor, real estate, biology, electromechanics, and other fields.

Extending its arm, grabbing, lifting, placing... A large creature with a prominent Wahaha logo on its body, resembling a giraffe, flexibly extended its arms back and forth, neatly stacking boxes of Wahaha yogurt drinks with ease and precision.

> In 2000, a mold factory was established to produce new bottle and cap molds for bottle-making and cap-making machines.
>
> In 2003, ERP system was introduced to implement enterprise information management.
>
> In 2008, participated in the National 863 Program project "Key Technologies and Demonstration Applications of Robot High-Speed Packaging Workstations."
>
> In 2011, undertook the research of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Twelfth Five-Year" major science and technology special project "Key Technologies and Demonstration Applications of High-Speed Handling Robots and Their Logistics Production Lines."
>
> In 2012, participated in the National 863 project "Development of High-Precision and High-Efficiency Industrial Robot Reducers."
>
> In 2015, completed the development of serial robots, parallel robots, and planar robots, and applied them in the group's beverage production lines for product boxing, palletizing, production material feeding, and boxing.
>
> In 2018, Wahaha registered and established Zhejiang Deqing Wahaha Technology Innovation Center Co., Ltd. According to business registration information, the company's business scope covers advanced equipment manufacturing technology, sensing technology, new energy vehicles and automotive intelligent technology, new materials, bioengineering, biomedicine, and other fields. Industry experts said that Wahaha may have established Deqing Wahaha to develop professional industrial intelligent equipment and enhance innovation capabilities in production equipment.
>
> ...

**It is reported that on March 27, 2019, Wahaha Commercial Co., Ltd. newly established a Zhejiang Wahaha Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 40 million RMB. Wahaha Commercial Co., Ltd. is the major shareholder, holding 65% of the shares.**

**According to data, Zong Qinghou is the ultimate beneficiary of the company and serves as chairman, holding a 52.15% stake. The business scope includes research, development, manufacturing, and sales of intelligent robots, machinery, and parts.**

**Exploring the Path of Robotics: Paving the Way for Listing?**

Before 2011, Wahaha was still a traditional manufacturing enterprise. With the rise in labor costs and the emergence of labor shortages, industrial robots gradually began to develop. Wahaha Group Chairman Zong Qinghou saw the development prospects and began to shift from the main food and beverage business to electromechanical engineering and information industry, hoping to explore a path of transformation and upgrading for Wahaha.

In 2011, Wahaha undertook the research of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Twelfth Five-Year" major science and technology special project "Key Technologies and Demonstration Applications of High-Speed Handling Robots and Their Logistics Production Lines." In 2012, Wahaha participated in two National 863 projects "Development of High-Precision and High-Efficiency Industrial Robot Reducers," all centered around robot applications and research.

In 2013, Wahaha embarked on the path of robotics in a planned manner, leveraging its experience in beverage machinery development and system integration applications to enter the field of intelligent equipment R&D and manufacturing. When the China Robot Industry Alliance visited Wahaha for research that year, Wahaha revealed that beverages, bioengineering, and electromechanics would be the three main lines of future development. The initial focus was on industrial robots, which could not only reduce production costs and improve production efficiency but also open up new growth points in the field of automated production equipment.

During the 2014 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Zong Qinghou stated that Wahaha would pursue diversified development in the future, expanding into bioengineering, robotics, high-tech environmental protection, and energy-saving motors, and began to introduce technology and talent.

In 2015, Wahaha completed the development of serial robots, parallel robots, and planar robots, and applied them in the group's beverage production lines for product boxing, palletizing, production material feeding, and boxing. Now, Wahaha's factories have achieved automation of production lines; apart from equipment monitoring personnel, no operators are visible. According to Zong Qinghou's vision, the robots produced by Wahaha would not only be used by itself but also continuously exported to form a high-end electromechanical manufacturing industry. At the same time, Wahaha is preparing to establish a Sensing Technology Research Institute. Zong Qinghou is optimistic about the chip and sensor fields, believing that these two can develop many new products, which are the most critical and most backward parts of the Internet of Things in China.

It is worth noting that industry analysts pointed out that the establishment of this company to formally enter the high-tech field is also related to Wahaha's pursuit of listing. Recently, Zong Qinghou said in a media interview: **"If there are projects requiring large capital investment in the future, we may consider listing."**

Zong Qinghou

**Unleashing the Potential of the Robot Industry**

Why make robots? Zong Qinghou believes that no one is willing to do physical labor, and dangerous or health-harming work should not be assigned to human labor. Therefore, Wahaha developed robots for loading explosives and robots for loading lead-acid batteries.

Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xin Guobin mentioned in March this year that, according to incomplete understanding, more than 20 provinces and cities across the country are cultivating and promoting robots as key industries. In recent years, the industry has developed rapidly, with more than 40 robot industry parks built or under construction nationwide, and the number of robot enterprises has exceeded 800 in just a few years. There is a problem of duplicate construction in the robot industry. "In terms of independent brands, most of our industrial robots are still low- and mid-end products, and the supply capacity of multi-joint robots with six axes or more is relatively low. Therefore, we do feel that in the robot field, there is a risk of high-end industries becoming low-end and overcapacity in low-end products."

Zong Qinghou has noticed the rush to make robots. He wants to change the situation where China does not have true intelligent robots and break the deadlock of high dependence on imports for core components. He hopes to cooperate with Israeli universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop core components.

In recent years, Wahaha has established an Electromechanical Research Institute, developing not only palletizing robots, feeding robots, explosive-loading robots, and lead-acid battery-loading robots, but also core robot components such as servo motors, servo drives, and direct-drive motors. Now, beverage machinery has been exported to Myanmar, and Wahaha has the capability to produce various molds and most beverage equipment, preparing to develop new industries in equipment manufacturing.

**The Road Ahead Is Long; He Will Search High and Low**

Wahaha originally intended to achieve self-sufficiency in manufacturing robots, but unexpectedly entered a trillion-yuan market: "We are entering the high-tech industry, developing energy-saving and environmentally friendly motors and robots. We originally had two machinery factories with world-class equipment, serving ourselves and making molds. Now we want to develop in this area."

Achieving industrial intelligence indeed faces many obstacles, and Wahaha has encountered many difficulties along the way. During the corporate transformation, Zong Qinghou said that when facing emerging industries, one should learn from professional enterprises. Zong Qinghou once revealed in a radio program: "We are making robots, but in the future, its name will not be 'Wahaha'."

To date, Wahaha's intelligent exploration path has not stopped. In terms of talent expansion, Wahaha appears quite eager: "The electromechanical field is mainly dominated by master's and doctoral degree holders. Compared to beverages and bioengineering, this area may sound unfamiliar to you, but we are currently vigorously recruiting." It is not difficult to see that Wahaha continuously conducts R&D and innovation to make up for the shortcomings of industrial production lines, and has successfully transformed, setting a good example for domestic enterprises.

Source: Zhejiang Business Magazine, Manufacturing Talk, e-Manufacturing

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