---
title: "Zong Fuli Makes Another Big Move"
description: "Zong Fuli, successor to Wahaha, plans to replace the Wahaha brand with a new brand 'Wa Xiao Zong' starting from the 2026 sales year, citing compliance issues. Dealers express strong opposition, fearing market rejection and financial losses, while the move is seen as part of a power struggle with other shareholders."
author: "胡楠楠"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2025-09-23"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Dealer Operations"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FP4nov9lLZOrNHpO9JsC3g"
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citation: "胡楠楠. “Zong Fuli Makes Another Big Move.” New Distribution, 2025-09-23. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/zong-fuli-makes-another-big-move-4c8fdc7a/"
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---

# Zong Fuli Makes Another Big Move

> Zong Fuli, successor to Wahaha, plans to replace the Wahaha brand with a new brand 'Wa Xiao Zong' starting from the 2026 sales year, citing compliance issues. Dealers express strong opposition, fearing market rejection and financial losses, while the move is seen as part of a power struggle with other shareholders.

### **Source** | China Entrepreneur Magazine
**"99% of Wahaha distributors won't do 'Wa Xiao Zong'."**
**Upon hearing that Zong Fuli plans to switch Wahaha products to the new brand "Wa Xiao Zong" starting from the 2026 sales year, Lu Ming (pseudonym), a Wahaha distributor for 20 years, told the reporter.**
**On September 13, a "Notice on Carrying Out Distributor Communication Work for the 2026 Sales Year" (referred to as the "Notice") circulated online. The document mentioned that to maintain compliance in the use of the "Wahaha" brand, the company decided to switch to the new brand "Wa Xiao Zong" starting from the new sales year in 2026. Due to complex historical issues that cannot be effectively resolved in the near term, the company's operations have been exposed to legal risks. Therefore, we have to make the above arrangement...**
**Regarding the authenticity of the document and whether all Wahaha products will switch to "Wa Xiao Zong" in the 2026 sales year, Wahaha responded with "no response" to the reporter.**
**Why did Zong Fuli decide to abandon "Wahaha" and launch a new brand?**
**Since the death of Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou in February last year, Zong Fuli has gradually transferred Wahaha system assets, businesses, and personnel to Hongsheng Group and its subsidiaries, which she controls, and which have no equity relationship with Wahaha Group.**
**The only exception is the "Wahaha" trademark, which still belongs to Wahaha Group. The equity structure of Wahaha Group is quite complex, with three shareholders: Hangzhou Shangcheng District Cultural, Tourism, and Business Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. holds 46%, making it the largest shareholder; Zong Fuli inherited the shares held by Zong Qinghou before his death, currently holding 29.4%; and the Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. Grassroots Trade Union Joint Committee (i.e., Wahaha Group Employee Stock Ownership Association) holds 24.6%.**
**Zong Fuli hopes to have greater control over Wahaha. Previously, she attempted to transfer the Wahaha trademark from Wahaha Group to Hangzhou Wahaha Food Co., Ltd., in which she holds more than 51% personally. However, the reporter learned from informed sources that "we understand that the trademark transfer was suspended after being exposed by the media."**
**At that time, regarding the trademark transfer, Wahaha stated in an official statement that it was to enhance the compliance of the group's operations. People close to Zong Fuli also told reporters that Zong Fuli values compliance in business operations.**
**But in the view of distributor Lu Ming, it may not be as simple as Wahaha products about to use a new brand; rather, Zong Fuli is playing a game with other shareholders of Wahaha.**
**Lu Ming pointed out to the reporter: "The 'Notice' mentioned that under the current equity structure, the use of the 'Wahaha' trademark requires unanimous consent from all shareholders of Wahaha Group; otherwise, no party has the right to use it." In other words, he believes that Zong Fuli thinks that if she doesn't use the Wahaha trademark, other related shareholders cannot use it either, and the next step might be to shelve the Wahaha trademark.**
**If it really comes to shelving the "Wahaha" brand, it might be a situation that all shareholders of Wahaha Group do not want to see. According to the 2024 China's Most Valuable Brands 500 list released by international brand valuation agency GYBrand, the Wahaha brand value is as high as 91.187 billion yuan.**
**Whether the decision to launch "Wa Xiao Zong" is truly to establish an independent brand or a game with other shareholders of Wahaha, only Zong Fuli knows.**

### Switching to a new brand is not easy
After the "Wahaha" trademark transfer was halted, Zong Fuli began to make other plans.
According to Qichacha, the "Wa Xiao Zong" trademark is registered under Hongsheng Beverage Group Co., Ltd. On February 19 this year, multiple categories of the "Wa Xiao Zong" trademark were applied for registration. At that time, it was only one week after the media exposed the Wahaha trademark transfer. As of now, the trademark status for "Wa Xiao Zong" in convenience foods and beer beverages is in the preliminary examination announcement stage. In addition, during the same period, Hongsheng also applied for registration of trademarks such as "Zong Xiao Ha" and "Wa Xiao Ha". In May this year, multiple categories were also applied for registration under the "Wa Xiao Zong" trademark.
In May this year, Wahaha publicly stated, "Due to the previous transfer of the Wahaha trademark, which is still in the registration and filing process and has uncertainties, our company does not rule out launching a completely new proprietary brand in the near future, and has made relevant preparations for this transformation."
But launching the new brand "Wa Xiao Zong" faces significant resistance, even at the distributor level.
"(This decision) doesn't even need to be communicated with distributors. I can say that 99% of distributors will not agree and will not do 'Wa Xiao Zong'," Lu Ming told the reporter with certainty. "I pay money to the company, and you send me Wa Xiao Zong products. What if I can't sell them? Distributors won't do this business, and they won't sign contracts with her."
"If Wahaha really renames its products to 'Wa Xiao Zong' starting from the 2026 sales year, will you sign the distribution contract?"
"I definitely won't sign." Facing the reporter's follow-up, Lu Ming said decisively.
If Zong Fuli really launches "Wa Xiao Zong", it is equivalent to cultivating a new brand from scratch. But building a new brand is not easy. As early as 2016, Zong Fuli founded her own beverage brand KellyOne, which covers fruit and vegetable juices, tea drinks, and sparkling water. However, the reporter previously learned from people related to Wahaha that KellyOne products were often produced but couldn't be sold, and were distributed to employees as benefits. Even if distributors were required to purchase as sales tasks, they usually gave away KellyOne products.
Currently, searching for KellyOne on Taobao shows that the official flagship store has no products for sale. Other Taobao stores only sell one KellyOne tea drink, and most stores are in clearance mode, with most KellyOne tea drinks on sale showing expiration in June this year.
Liu Peng (pseudonym) is a distributor in a certain region of Inner Mongolia and has been a Wahaha distributor for 5 years. He is also not optimistic about launching the new brand "Wa Xiao Zong". In his view, if Wahaha really switches to "Wa Xiao Zong", it will have a significant impact on the market. "After all, Wahaha is deeply rooted in people's minds. If you switch to a new brand, without two or three years of accumulation, it probably won't sell well."
He told the reporter that in recent years, Wahaha's old products sell well, such as AD calcium milk and eight-treasure porridge, but new products have poor sales, including the iced tea that changed packaging this year, which eventually became a "headache" in inventory.

### "Collapsed" distributors
Putting aside the internal equity dispute within Wahaha and the dispute over Zong Qinghou's family inheritance, the changes since Zong Fuli took over, as well as the public opinion turmoil in the past six months, have indeed affected the Wahaha brand and dealt a blow to the confidence of some distributors.
"Some of Wahaha's current distributors are living in misery, not making money and feeling exhausted. If she changes to a new brand, how could anyone do it?" In Lu Ming's view, after nearly a year of Zong Fuli's "tossing and turning", Wahaha's distributors have lost confidence.
Lu Ming revealed to the reporter that in his regional market, at least three or four distributors are basically in a state of giving up and are unwilling to continue.
"(Here) one-third of Wahaha distributors are on the brink of collapse. First, Wahaha's sales tasks are set too high, not caring about the distributors' survival; second, the market prices are chaotic, making no money or even losing money. The distributors around me are now in a 'whatever' state." And Lu Ming's regional market is actually a region with above-average sales performance in Wahaha's sales, as Lu Ming put it, "the basic foundation is good."
Photo: Hu Nannan
He told the reporter that the profit for Wahaha distributors is now very low, with gross profit around 10%, but after deducting worker wages, fuel, warehousing, and other costs, net profit is only about 2% to 3%. Adding returns, it's good if they don't lose money in a year.
In addition to distributors like Lu Ming who are barely maintaining, some Wahaha distributors have already stopped, either voluntarily due to losses or forced to "close accounts" (i.e., having their distributor status revoked by Wahaha) due to failure to meet performance targets.
Liu Peng is the latter. In June this year, he was "closed account" by Wahaha due to failing assessments for two consecutive months. He told the reporter that after Zong Fuli took over, she only focused on whether sales targets were met, without considering the actual situation of the region or caring about distributors' inventory.
According to him, his region originally had a small population, and before last year, annual sales were around 3 million yuan, "which was easy to achieve." But last year, affected by the public opinion heat of Zong Qinghou's death, his region's sales reached 6 million yuan. This year, Wahaha set his task at an additional 15% increase on last year's sales. "Previously, it was easy to do 200,000 or 300,000 yuan per month, but now they require 500,000 to 600,000 yuan per month, which is quite stressful."
Because Wahaha's market is relatively large, after he was "closed account", Wahaha has been looking for three months locally and hasn't found a distributor to take over the local market.
In the view of a person who has been a Wahaha distributor for half a year and also a distributor for 18 years, the core problem Zong Fuli faces now lies with Zong Fuli herself. He said, "Whether Wahaha changes to 'Wa Xiao Zong' or 'Wa Xiao Xiao', the key is still Zong Fuli. What is her long-term plan for business operations? If these things don't change, it's useless no matter what she changes."
He told the reporter that the reason he stopped doing Wahaha this year is that he feels there is no future in following her.
Perhaps for Zong Fuli at the moment, compared to the equity, actual control, and trademark disputes of Wahaha Group, the more important thing is how to stabilize the distributor group and let distributors regain confidence.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 胡楠楠
- Published: 2025-09-23
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/zong-fuli-makes-another-big-move-4c8fdc7a/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FP4nov9lLZOrNHpO9JsC3g

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