Wahaha was acquired by France's Danone.

in March p>1996, Wahaha food city co., ltd. and Wahaha group co., ltd., founded by zong Qinghou, jointly invested with French Danone group and hong kong peregrine to form five joint ventures, and Danone obtained 41% equity in the joint venture. (There are relevant provisions in the joint venture contract that other non-joint venture companies in Wahaha can use the Wahaha trademark, but they must obtain the consent of the board of directors of the joint venture company.

after the Asian financial turmoil, peregrine sold its equity to Danone, which jumped to 51% holding position, and Wahaha held 49%.

in April, 1999, after Wahaha's application for listing in the name of food city was blocked, it established a number of enterprises with food city that had no property right relationship with Danone. These enterprises operate and sell under the brand of Wahaha without the consent of the board of directors of the joint venture company.

Danone once "let" other joint ventures of Zong Qinghou use the brand Wahaha, but after other joint ventures of Wahaha made profits, Danone began to question its brand use.

in December p>26, Danone signed a contract with Wahaha to acquire the remaining non-joint venture companies. But three months later, Zong Qinghou went back on his word and decided to set up another sales company in order to break away from the channels of the original joint venture company and sell the products of non-joint venture companies.

on April 8, 27, zong Qinghou disclosed the inside story of Danone's forced purchase of Wahaha.

Extended information

Background and causes

In p>1987, Zong Qinghou started his business with two retired teachers and borrowed 14, yuan. By 1996, after several investments and acquisitions, Wahaha's output value had exceeded 1 million yuan, and it had begun to take shape. With the good wish of "market for technology", Zong Qinghou chose to introduce the world beverage giant Danone strategically.

In p>1996, Wahaha, Danone Company and Hong Kong Baifuqin Company jointly established five companies to produce products with the trademark "Wahaha", including purified water and eight-treasure porridge.

Wahaha holds 49% of the shares. After the Asian financial turmoil, Peregrine sold the shares to Danone, and Danone jumped to 51% of the holding position.

although Danone holds 51% of the equity of the joint venture company, the decision-making power of the operation and production of the whole Wahaha group is concentrated in Zong Qinghou's hands. During nearly 1 years of cooperation with Danone, Zong Qinghou has been firmly in control of Wahaha by virtue of his accumulated prestige and tough work style in Wahaha for many years. Danone once sent R&D managers and marketing directors, but they were all driven away by Zong Qinghou.

it is reported that at the beginning of cooperation with Danone, the "four chapters of the contract" between Zong Qinghou and Danone is the best embodiment of Zong Qinghou's tough style: first, the brand remains unchanged; Second, the position of the chairman remains unchanged; Third, the treatment of retired workers remains unchanged; Fourth, employees over the age of 45 are not allowed to be dismissed.

At that time, Danone immediately proposed to transfer the trademark right of Wahaha to its joint venture company, but it was rejected by the State Trademark Office, so the two parties later signed a trademark use contract instead.

What Zong Qinghou didn't expect was that a seemingly casual clause in the contract made Wahaha passive today. There is such a clause in the contract: "China can use the (Wahaha) trademark in the production and sales of other products in the future, and these products have been submitted to the board of directors of Wahaha and its joint venture for consideration ..."

This clause simply means that Wahaha needs to obtain the consent of Danone or a joint venture with it to produce and sell products with its own trademark. In the past 1 years, Wahaha has successively established 39 joint ventures with Danone, accounting for 39% of the total number of subsidiaries of Wahaha Group.

after the joint venture, the cooperation between the two parties is not pleasant. In the middle and late 199s, with the rapid enhancement of enterprise strength, the improvement of product marketing network and the popularity of product image, Wahaha urgently needed to expand its production capacity by expanding its scale and setting up factories across regions. However, Danone disagreed with Wahaha on many issues, such as investing in factories.

for example, in order to respond to the call of the state and complete the industrial layout of enterprise products in the central and western regions, the decision-makers of Wahaha hope to participate in the western development, counterpart support for the old revolutionary base areas, national poverty-stricken areas, the construction of the Three Gorges reservoir area and other projects.

however, Danone is unwilling to invest because of its concern about the consumption power of these areas. Because it is a joint venture, Danone is unwilling to invest, and Wahaha cannot invest on its own. Sharp contradictions have occurred between the two sides.

References: Baidu Encyclopedia-Danone forcibly purchased Wahaha incident

References: People's Daily Online-Danone forcibly purchased Wahaha: a bloody case caused by mineral water (3)