China News Service, Hangzhou, February 25 (Xi Jinyan) On the 25th, Wahaha Group issued an obituary. Comrade Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of Wahaha Group, passed away at 10:30 on February 25, 2024 due to ineffective treatment. He was 79 years old.
Obituaries.
Zong Qinghou was born in 1945 and is a benchmark figure among Zhejiang businessmen.
According to the book "An Oral History of Zhejiang's 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up", Zong Qinghou recalled that after graduating from junior high school at the age of 17, he worked in Zhoushan Mamu Farm and Shaoxing Tea Plantation for 14 years.
In 1978, my mother retired early and returned to Hangzhou to work as a worker.
In 1987, the 42-year-old Zong Qinghou borrowed 140,000 yuan (RMB, the same below) and contracted to operate the school-run enterprise distribution department in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, the predecessor of Wahaha.
The story that followed is familiar to all of us. Because it was close to the market, Wahaha Children’s Oral Liquid was launched in 1988, thus tapping into the market’s first pot of gold.
Since then, Zong Qinghou has created a large number of household beverage brands including Wahaha purified water, AD calcium milk and so on.
In 2010, Zong Qinghou was listed as the richest man in China by Forbes with a net worth of 53.4 billion yuan, and he has been ranked as the richest man in mainland China several times since then.
"We have always believed that real wealth is not material wealth, but spiritual wealth." As one of the few first-generation Zhejiang businessmen still running on the front line, Zong Qinghou previously said in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that he There is still much to do.
But now, his figure is forever fixed in this coming spring.
It is reported that the Funeral Committee of Comrade Zong Qinghou of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. is scheduled to hold a memorial service at 10 a.m. on February 28 at the Xiasha base of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd.
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