Zong Qinghou, beverage giant Wahaha Group founder, dies at 79

Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of Chinese beverage giant Wahaha Group, died on Sunday at the age of 79, the company has confirmed.

On Thursday, the company said that Zong was hospitalized but remained in stable condition. The group’s business is operating as normal.

In 1987, Zong led two retired teachers to set up a school-run enterprise. With a loan of 140,000 yuan ($19,700 at current rates), they started selling soda and popsicles on a consignment basis. Later through technological and marketing innovation, they created the famous brand Wahaha.

Zong also became a major representative of China’s private entrepreneurs after reform and opening-up kicked off in 1978, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

He won honors including the National Model Worker, the National May 1 Labor Medal and the “Top 100 outstanding private entrepreneurs at the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up award.”

“For Chinese entrepreneurs, it is essential to be patriotic, to innovate continuously and to care for employees,” Zong once said. “Only in this way can private firms thrive.”

With regard to personal wealth, Zong topped the list of the richest people in the Chinese mainland for several times.

As a leader in China’s beverage industry, Zong created a large number of household beverage brands including Wahaha purified water and AD calcium milk. He was regarded as one of the representatives of the first generation of entrepreneurs in Zhejiang andiconic figure of China’s economic reform.

Set up in 1987, the company continued to expand, with output value exceeding 100 million yuan in 1990, reaching 78.28 billion yuan in 2013. In 2022, the group company’s sales reached 51.202 billion yuan.