Zong Fuli

Asian Cover Figure | Zong Fuli: Redefining the Future of China's Beverage Industry Between Heritage and Innovation

Asian "Cover Figure" Magazine · Women's Influence

Issue No. 871-ACF-NXYXL-2026

In the development history of China's beverage industry, Wahaha is a name that cannot be avoided. Born in 1987, this enterprise grew from a school-run distribution department in Hangzhou to become a benchmark in China's beverage industry, its founder Zong Qinghou regarded as a representative figure of Chinese private entrepreneurs. And the person who took the helm after Zong Qinghou is his only daughter — Zong Fuli.

Zong Fuli, former chairwoman of Wahaha Group and president of Hongsheng Beverage Group, is one of the most influential female entrepreneurs in China's beverage industry. From returning from overseas studies to entering the family business, from grassroots management to full succession, every step has been accompanied by intense outside attention and ongoing discussion. What she faces is not only a national brand with decades of history but an era-defining question of inheritance, innovation, and self-proof.

I. Growth and Education: Accumulating Strength Beyond the Spotlight

Zong Fuli was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in 1982. As Zong Qinghou's only daughter, her upbringing was entirely different from ordinary families, but her father's educational approach was surprisingly simple and strict. According to public reports, Zong Qinghou did not want his daughter to enjoy privileges prematurely but required her to develop independent thinking and self-directed capability.

Around 2000, Zong Fuli went to the United States for studies, receiving systematic business education in Los Angeles. Her years in America gave her a cognitive framework for international business operations, brand management, and modern corporate governance different from her father's generation. She encountered Western business philosophies and management methodologies, and began considering how to combine modern business thinking with Chinese market realities.

In 2004, upon returning to China, Zong Fuli did not directly enter Wahaha headquarters as a senior executive but chose to start from the production frontline. She entered a Wahaha factory, beginning from workshop management and production scheduling — basic positions — gradually understanding every operational aspect of the enterprise. This "bottom-up" growth path reflected her reverence for industrial operations and laid a solid practical foundation for her later independent management.

II. Independent Entrepreneurship: The Growth of Hongsheng Group

After accumulating several years of management experience within the Wahaha system, Zong Fuli began taking on greater responsibility. Around 2007, she took full charge of Hongsheng Beverage Group operations. Hongsheng is an important production base and supply chain platform within the Wahaha system, handling large volumes of product manufacturing and supply.

During her leadership of Hongsheng, Zong Fuli demonstrated a management style independent from her father's generation. She pushed the enterprise to extend upstream and downstream in the industrial chain, gradually moving from pure contract manufacturing toward independent R&D, brand operations, and market development. She emphasized introducing modern management systems and digital operations tools to improve efficiency and management precision.

According to public information, under Zong Fuli's leadership, Hongsheng Beverage Group achieved steady business growth, with more comprehensive industrial chain layout and significantly enhanced overall competitiveness. This period of independent management not only validated her business judgment and management capability but established her own professional reputation in the industry.

III. The Succession: Identity Transformation from Second Generation to Helmsman

In 2024, Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou passed away from illness, and China's business community lost a legendary entrepreneur. After her father's passing, Zong Fuli formally assumed Wahaha Group management positions, becoming the new helmsman of this national brand. This transition attracted widespread societal attention — in outside eyes, this was not merely a family succession but the intersection of two generations' business philosophies and era contexts.

The challenges facing Zong Fuli after taking over were multidimensional. On one hand, Wahaha, as a national brand with decades of history, carries deep emotional value and a massive consumer base — how to promote innovation and upgrading while preserving core brand assets is an extremely challenging proposition. On the other hand, China's beverage market is undergoing profound transformation — rising consumer health awareness, rapid emergence of new brands, continuous channel restructuring — all requiring enterprises to respond to market changes with greater agility.

In her public statements after taking over, Zong Fuli demonstrated a pragmatic yet firm attitude. She repeatedly stated she would continue upholding Wahaha's core values and product quality standards while actively exploring brand rejuvenation and product innovation directions. In her view, inheritance doesn't mean clinging to the old, and innovation doesn't mean denying the past — true inheritance means injecting new era vitality into the brand while respecting the enterprise's DNA.

IV. Brand Rejuvenation: Finding Balance Between Tradition and Innovation

Driving Wahaha's brand rejuvenation transformation is one of Zong Fuli's core tasks after taking over. She knows well that a brand founded in the 1980s must complete comprehensive upgrades from product to communication, from channels to experience to maintain appeal among new-generation consumers.

At the product level, Zong Fuli helped Wahaha increase R&D investment in health beverages, functional drinks, and other high-growth categories, enriching product lines to meet consumers' increasingly diverse needs. In brand communication, she encourages teams to adopt communication methods closer to young demographics, enhancing brand contemporaneity through social media, crossover collaborations, and scenario marketing. In channel strategy, while consolidating traditional channel advantages, she actively expands e-commerce and new retail online channels, improving omni-channel reach.

These measures require patience and sustained investment. Brand rejuvenation is not a one-off marketing event but a systematic project requiring long-term accumulation. The composure and resolve Zong Fuli demonstrates in this process carry a certain spiritual inheritance from her father's patient market layout style — unhurried, doing the right things, letting time provide answers.

V. The Female Entrepreneur's Vision: Management Wisdom Combining Softness and Strength

In China's business community, female entrepreneurs' numbers and influence continue rising. As a representative woman leader in the beverage industry, Zong Fuli's management style demonstrates a unique combination of softness and strength.

In strategic decisions, she shows clear logical thinking and decisive judgment; in team management, she emphasizes communication, listening, and empathy, excelling at motivating team members' initiative and creativity. She combines international vision with Chinese market realities, promoting gradual innovative transformation while maintaining enterprise stability.

Regarding the "enterprise second generation" label the public assigns her, Zong Fuli chooses to respond with action. She doesn't shy away from her father's halo but doesn't rely on it either — she proved her capability through independently managing Hongsheng, and injects confidence in Wahaha's future through steady post-succession performance.

From overseas studies to rooted industrial practice, from grassroots management to leading a national brand — Zong Fuli's growth journey is itself a business narrative of inheritance and breakthrough. She stands at a unique historical node — carrying the business foundation her parents built while shouldering the mission of opening the next era for this enterprise. In the interweaving of inheritance and innovation, this female entrepreneur is writing her own business chapter.

Every cover publication is registered and kept in the ACF Cover Archive. The code is permanent.

Further ReadingRelated

Dong Mingzhu

ACF Code

ACF-01-00111

Dong Mingzhu

Chairwoman

Qiu Yueqi

ACF Code

ACF-01-00137

Qiu Yueqi

President

Zhang Zetian

ACF Code

ACF-01-00175

Zhang Zetian

Investor

Xu Xin

ACF Code

ACF-01-00192

Xu Xin

Founder

Not Everyone Makes the Cover

Asia Cover Figure · Influencing Those Who Influence