---
title: "The Sale Histories of Jianlibao and Other Legacy Brands"
description: "Jianlibao, once China's top beverage brand, has been sold for the fourth time, this time to Tianyun International. Many iconic Chinese brands have faced similar fates due to foreign competition and internal issues, but some are attempting comebacks through innovation and brand revival."
author: "张尧"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2023-12-30"
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# The Sale Histories of Jianlibao and Other Legacy Brands

> Jianlibao, once China's top beverage brand, has been sold for the fourth time, this time to Tianyun International. Many iconic Chinese brands have faced similar fates due to foreign competition and internal issues, but some are attempting comebacks through innovation and brand revival.

China's first beverage with alkaline electrolytes, the first to introduce the sports drink concept, and among the first batch of China's well-known trademarks... These firsts were all achievements of "Oriental Magic Water" Jianlibao in the last century.
Perhaps many post-90s and post-00s generations no longer recognize this brand, but Jianlibao was once the undisputed "No.1 brand" in China's beverage industry. The "childhood memory" returned to people's视野 due to an acquisition announcement. On November 21, Hong Kong-listed Tianyun International Holding Co., Ltd. ("Tianyun International") announced that it had signed a subscription agreement with Jianlibao to subscribe for approximately 9.18% of Jianlibao's shares for RMB 300 million. At the same time, Tianyun International plans to further increase its actual interest in Jianlibao to approximately 20%.
After being acquired by Zhejiang State Investment, Uni-President Group, and CITIC Group, this is Jianlibao's fourth "sale."
Beyond domestic beverages, expanding to the food industry, brands that have undergone "sales" include Hsu Fu Chi and Yinlu Foods. Expanding further to daily chemicals, appliances, and hardware, examples include Panda laundry detergent, Supor, and Nanfu Battery, with countless similar cases.
Why do these national enterprises escape the fate of being "sold"? And where will they go from here?
**Jianlibao's Glory and Ups and Downs**
In the 1980s and 1990s, Jianlibao maintained the title of China's most recognized beverage brand.
"Father of Jianlibao" Li Jingwei first brought Jianlibao to the world.
At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Jianlibao made a stunning debut, and when the Chinese women's volleyball team won the championship, they were holding Jianlibao. From then on, Jianlibao was called "China's Magic Water." Since then, Jianlibao's annual sales soared from RMB 3.45 million in 1984 to RMB 130 million in 1986, with revenue growth rising at a "rocket-like" pace.
Li Jingwei quickly established partnerships with other major sporting events. In 1987, Jianlibao became the beverage sponsor for the Guangzhou National Games with a sponsorship fee of RMB 2.5 million. In 1990, Jianlibao invested RMB 16 million in a super sponsorship to partner with the Beijing Asian Games. In 1992, Jianlibao signed an agreement with the Chinese Football Association to formally establish the "Jianlibao Youth Football Team," the first national private football training institution in China.
Image source: Jianlibao founder Li Jingwei (left)
In 1997, Jianlibao set a sales record of RMB 5.4 billion, contributing nearly 50% of the tax revenue for Sanshui City, Foshan, Guangdong, a relatively remote area.
However, while Jianlibao was developing rapidly, there were hidden dangers. Jianlibao was a state-controlled enterprise, with its major shareholder being the Sanshui County government, while Li Jingwei, who achieved many feats, was only the operator.
In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, Jianlibao's sales began to decline. At that time, Li Jingwei invested over RMB 1 billion in Guangzhou to build the Jianlibao Tower, hoping to move the headquarters out of Sanshui County and build a stronger Jianlibao brand. On the other hand, starting from 1998, the Sanshui government gradually tightened its control over Jianlibao's capital management. New products developed by Jianlibao had to be approved by the government before funds could be allocated, and investment attraction also required government consent.
According to media reports, to prevent Jianlibao from moving out, the Sanshui government set many thresholds, such as requiring that local Sanshui residents account for at least 45% of Jianlibao's employees. After the Sanshui government and Li Jingwei completely "fell out," in July 2001, the Sanshui government held a restructuring meeting for Jianlibao. The result was that over 90% of attendees advocated selling Jianlibao, but definitely not to Li Jingwei.
To this end, the Sanshui government approached Singapore's First Foods Company and Wahaha, but ultimately, under the resistance of Li Jingwei and the company, the acquisition plan fell through. The Sanshui government stated that if RMB 450 million could be raised within seven days, Jianlibao would belong to Li Jingwei's team. However, on the second-to-last day before the deadline, the Sanshui government directly "cut the ground from under his feet" by selling Jianlibao to Zhejiang State Investment. Zhejiang State Investment acquired 75% of Jianlibao's shares for RMB 338 million. Shortly after, Li Jingwei suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.
Although the battle for Jianlibao's ownership came to an end, Jianlibao's development was not smooth thereafter. After being handled by Zhejiang State Investment, it was subsequently "sold" to Uni-President Group and CITIC Group. According to Tianyun International's announcement, Jianlibao's operating revenue for 2021 and 2022 was RMB 1.95 billion and RMB 2.3 billion respectively, less than half of its peak.
Image source: Official website
**Why Do Legacy Enterprises Sell Themselves**
Looking at the development history of national enterprises, there are many that, like Jianlibao, have been "sold."
In fact, from the 1980s to the 1990s, China had eight major soda beverage brands: Beijing Beibingyang, Tianjin Shanhaiguan, Qingdao Laoshan, Shenyang Bawangsi, Wuhan No.2 Factory, Guangzhou Asia, Shanghai Zhengguanghe, and Chongqing Tianfu Cola, but they were basically all acquired or controlled by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
Among them, those acquired by PepsiCo include Tianfu Cola, Asia Soda, and Beibingyang Soda; those acquired by Coca-Cola include Shenyang Bawangsi, Tianjin Shanhaiguan, Qingdao Laoshan, and Wuhan No.2 Factory.
Image source: Most soda companies were taken under the wing of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo
Before being "sold," like many legendary business stories, most enterprises implemented decisive changes in their early stages, successfully building household-name national brands. The aforementioned national enterprises that experienced "sales" almost all had their moments of glory.
Huiyuan Juice's glory moment was in 2007, when it set a record for the largest IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, rising 66% on its debut, with net profit attributable to shareholders reaching RMB 640 million. Tianfu Cola, during its heyday, held 75% of China's cola market share and was sold in many countries. Beibingyang, at its peak, had an output value exceeding RMB 100 million, with net profit of over RMB 13 million, and was also the first brand to appear on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
Why do these legacy national enterprises, which once had their glory days, ultimately fail to escape the fate of being "sold"?
Many attribute the reason to the entry of foreign capital. Some foreign investors wear the friendly mask of "joint ventures," but in reality, they implement monopolies domestically through paths such as joint ventures, power grabs, and shelving.
In the beverage industry, shortly after the reform and opening-up, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo successively announced their entry into the Chinese market, and the two giants began competing for the Chinese market. Facing the strong impact of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, at that time, the eight major soda factories, which were the pillars of China's soda industry, mostly signed joint venture or acquisition agreements with PepsiCo or Coca-Cola, hoping to learn foreign management models and mature bottling technology, as well as to fill funding gaps.
In 1994, PepsiCo invested USD 10.7 million, and Tianfu Cola contributed land, factory buildings, and production equipment valued at USD 7.3 million, jointly establishing Chongqing Pepsi Tianfu Company.
According to the agreement, the joint venture was to ensure that Tianfu Cola production accounted for no less than half of the total annual beverage output. However, PepsiCo reduced Tianfu Cola's production year by year and also took away Tianfu Cola's core formula, gradually eliminating competitors in their infancy. During the more than ten years of joint venture with PepsiCo, Tianfu Cola went from a large national enterprise to a municipal-level special hardship enterprise in Chongqing.
Image: Tianfu Cola
Similar was the case with Beibingyang Soda.
In the same year that Tianfu Cola partnered with PepsiCo, Beibingyang also reached a cooperation with PepsiCo, establishing Pepsi Beibingyang Soda Co., Ltd. Through the joint venture, PepsiCo seized Beibingyang's sales channels, vigorously promoted its own brands, but restricted Beibingyang's development, allowing it to gradually fade in the market.
In 1986, Shanhaiguan Soda Factory formed a partnership with Coca-Cola, establishing Tianjin Jinmei Beverage Co., Ltd. After the joint venture, the foreign party refused to provide concentrate to the contracted bottling plants, resulting in inconsistent quality of Shanhaiguan brand soda, and its reputation collapsed. Other domestic sodas were gradually shelved and discontinued: Qingdao Laoshan Cola ceased production in 1997, and Wuhan No.2 Factory soda stopped production in 2000.
In the food industry, this situation was repeated.
In 2011, Hsu Fu Chi sold 60% of its shares to Nestlé, the world's largest food company, for USD 1.7 billion. In the same year, Nestlé announced the acquisition of 60% of Yinlu Foods for RMB 1.5 billion. In the daily chemicals industry, Germany's Henkel acquired the children's care brand Haimian, and Procter & Gamble acquired Panda laundry detergent. In the home appliance and hardware industry, Supor was sold to French small appliance company SEB in 2007, and "China's No.1 battery" Nanfu Battery changed hands five times.
To this day, although not all "sold" national brands have disappeared from public view, it is known that most acquired national enterprises have seen declining performance, and the keywords associated with them are often "revival" and "reinvigoration."
In addition to foreign intervention, internal factors cannot be ignored in the decline of national brands.
On one hand, internal corporate strife not only consumes brand creativity and competitiveness but also leads to the regression and decline of national brands. Jianlibao, mentioned earlier, faced a restructuring dilemma. On the other hand, internal strategic decision-making errors, where brand heritage and innovation are disconnected in an era of consumer upgrading, are also major reasons for brand decline.
**Where Do Legacy Enterprises Go from Here**
In recent years, with the rise of national trends and domestic products, many old brands have returned to the public eye.
What many may not know is that before returning to the market, these old brands that were forced to be "sold" went through a difficult journey. In the beverage sector, in 2007, after a year of negotiations, Beijing Yiqing Holding Company recovered the Beibingyang brand from PepsiCo, but at the cost of Beibingyang promising not to produce any products for four years, only resuming production and sales in November 2011.
In 2008, Tianfu Cola also began to reclaim its brand from PepsiCo, obtaining the formula ownership at the end of 2010, and the trademark rights returned to Tianfu Cola in 2013. During the same period, the brand ownership of other domestic sodas also returned to their original companies: Bawangsi Soda returned in 2003, Laoshan Cola resumed production in 2004, and Shanhaiguan Soda was relaunched in 2014.
To revive their glory, from product innovation to cross-industry collaborations, the old soda factories have done everything they could. Among the aforementioned soda factories, Beibingyang has been the most active. In addition to its orange soda, Beibingyang has successively launched orange, passion fruit, lemon, sour plum, and ginger flavors, as well as sub-lines such as soda water, sparkling water, coffee, yogurt, and ice cream, and even launched sodas with fruit juice content exceeding 5%.
It is reported that Beibingyang, based in the Beijing market, has annual sales exceeding RMB 1 billion. Other soda factories have not yet achieved such "good results," and this is far from enough, being less than one-twentieth of Coca-Cola's or PepsiCo's domestic sales.
Although domestic sodas have regained brand operating rights, the current domestic beverage market is already a red ocean. At this point, domestic brands relying solely on "nostalgia cards" is far from sufficient. **Either achieve a new breakthrough in brand mindshare or make significant product innovation; otherwise, old soda factories trying to reclaim their former market share can only "sigh at the ocean."**
The current situation of legacy enterprises in other industries after being "sold" is also not satisfactory.
Panda laundry detergent, which once had an annual output of up to 60,000 tons, has now disappeared from the market. Even on e-commerce platforms, this once mainstream brand that ranked among the top three in the domestic market can no longer be found, essentially losing any possibility of a comeback.
The candy company Golden Monkey was sold to the American Hershey Company for RMB 2.6 billion, and in 2018, it was re-acquired by the domestic enterprise Henan Yuxiang Food Co., Ltd. To this day, Golden Monkey finds it difficult to occupy a place in the snack market.
Looking back, Jianlibao's brand exploration path is a microcosm of traditional national enterprises in the 1980s and 1990s. If the acquisition of Jianlibao by Hong Kong-listed Tianyun International can combine the strengths of both parties in production, product promotion, market expansion, and brand promotion, creating synergies and achieving the original intention of cooperation, perhaps Jianlibao still has the possibility of a "resurgence."
National enterprises have a history of over a hundred years. Facing external impacts and challenges at all times, they bear more responsibilities of the era.
There is an old saying: "There is no enterprise of the times, only enterprises of the times." The times are unpredictable; enterprises that "change" survive, and those that "do not change" perish. National enterprises still need to adapt to the trends of the times, carry out reforms, innovate in inheritance, and keep old national brands vibrant.


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