Zong Qinghou, billionaire founder of Chinese drinks giant Wahaha Group, dies at 79
- Zong Qinghou turned a small drinks distributor into a beverage conglomerate that bested French partner Danone to dominate the China market
- Once the richest man in China, Zong was worth US$13 billion last year and ranked No 31 on the Hurun China Rich List
The billionaire passed away at 10.30am local time on February 25, the company said in a statement on its official Weibo social-media account. A memorial service will be held on February 28 in Xiasha, Hangzhou, its home base in eastern Zhejiang province, it added.
As the chairman of one of China’s largest beverage makers, Zong was ranked the nation’s wealthiest businessman in 2010 and 2012 by the Hurun Research Institute’s China Rich List. With a fortune of US$13.1 billion, he ranked 31st on the list last year.
Born to a poor family in the Jiangsu provincial city of Suqian in October 1945, Zong became one of the “sent-down youth” in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution, which saw him spend 15 years working in the countryside. His age is stated as 79 in accordance with Chinese tradition, which advances the age of the deceased by a year.
Zong returned to the provincial capital in 1978 to work as a salesman. Together with two retired teachers, Zong took over a grocer in 1987 at a local school and started as a drinks and ice cream distributor – his first step in creating a leading beverage firm. He founded and headed Hangzhou Wahaha Nutritional Foods Factory in 1989, which became Hangzhou Wahaha Group two years later when it acquired an insolvent local canned food factory.