text | Longxi
source | Business legend
Because of the indirect purchase of Beijing Huiyuan 18.89% shares , in the last five trading days of 2022, a listed company from Heilongjiang, Guozhong Water , pulled 4 daily limit , and ended 2022 with a 5% increase on the last day.
So many people will ask, since Huiyuan is so optimistic, how can it be reduced to the point of being applied for reorganization?
Huiyuan is indeed a well-known brand. It was once known as the national beverage and the king of Chinese juices. It once swept the Chinese juice market. From the late 1990s to the first few years of the 21st century, if there were ladies or non-drinking guests at a dinner party, Huiyuan was almost a must-order. The slogan "Huiyuan is called Chinese New Year" made it a must-have for many families during the New Year.
Huiyuan was founded by Zhu Xinli in Yiyuan, Zibo, Shandong. A few years later, Zhu Xinli headed north and founded Beijing Huiyuan in Beijing. Around 2007, Huiyuan reached its peak and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that year. The next year, Coca-Cola planned to acquire for 18 billion yuan. The two parties had signed an agreement, but unfortunately it later died. Huiyuan has since declined. By 2018, it was suspended by due to debt problems. In 2021, it was delisted and applied for reorganization.
In June this year, according to the reorganization plan, Wensheng Hui, a platform established by Wensheng Assets for the reorganization, acquired 60% of Beijing Huiyuan’s shares and became the largest shareholder. This time, China Water Affairs intends to purchase 31.481% of Wenshenghui's shares, thereby indirectly holding 18.89% of Beijing Huiyuan's shares.
At this time, Huiyuan had little relationship with Zhu Xinli.
In fact, Zhu Xinli had already quit the board of directors as early as 2020, essentially leaving Huiyuan. In June, he only "changed ownership" in terms of property rights. With Guozhong Water acquiring 18.89% of the shares, the owner of this national beverage brand has become more complicated.
Judging from the current information released by Huiyuan, the business is still normal. In August this year, entertainment star Yi Yang Qianxi was signed as a spokesperson. However, whether Huiyuan Juice can regain its glory still needs time to be verified.
However, in the past 10 years or so, many beverage brands in China that were once "national brands" have also experienced "change of hands", but few of them have regained their glory.
In August this year, a once very well-known beverage brand attracted attention.
At that time, New Hualian Group in Changsha, Hunan filed for bankruptcy, and 40% of its Taizi Milk was auctioned. After failed to sell , a company called " Sanyuan Shares " acquired it. Previously, Sanyuan Shares held 60% of the shares of Prince Milk.
Many people may still remember Prince Milk. Back then, it was a brand almost as famous as Robust and Wahaha . It was even more powerful. Its main product, lactic acid bacteria drink , was founded by Li Chuntu. In 1997, Taizi Milk, which had just been established for a year, became famous when it paid 88.88 million yuan to shoot a five-second prime-time advertisement before the CCTV weather forecast. It then developed at an incredible speed. In 2007, its sales revenue exceeded 3 billion yuan (some say 1.76 billion).
But in the second year, affected by external factors such as melamine, the 2008 financial crisis , as well as some internal reasons, coupled with the bet with the investor , the prince's milk collapsed overnight, and Li Chuntu was imprisoned. After being taken over, Tai Zi Nai continued to have troubles and showed no improvement. In 2011, it went bankrupt and reorganized. Sanyuan Shares and Xinhualian Group obtained 60% and 40% respectively.
Among them, Xinhualian Group has been the largest private enterprise in Hunan for many consecutive years, with sales exceeding 100 billion yuan.
But in the hands of these two companies, Prince Milk shows no signs of recovery. In the past 10 years, only 2015 and 2019 have had no losses. In 2021, the main business income was only 18.52 million yuan in revenue, with a loss of 61.4 million yuan.
In the market, people almost forget that there is a drink called "Prince Milk". Therefore, Xinhualian holds 40% of the shares. The estimated price of equity is 125 million yuan, but the starting price is only 87.5676 million yuan and no one is interested.
Robust, which rivaled Wahaha back then, took another approach.
Robust, which started out as a lactic acid bacteria drink like Prince Milk, was founded by Cantonese He Boquan in 1989. In just a few years, Robust became one of the well-known beverage brands in China at that time. Especially in 1994, He Boquan spent 10 million yuan to purchase Ma Junren's "Life Nuclear Energy" formula, planning it to become a sensational event, and later entered the field of bottled water.
In 2000, Robust was sold to Danone of France. In 2002, founders such as He Boquan left Robust. Fortunately, Robust was hidden by Danone and quickly disappeared from people's sight.
In 2016, Danone sold the Robust trademark to a company called "Ying Investment Holdings", and then reappeared in the market, but now it is rare to see Robust products in the market.
The rising sun of and , which was popular in the 1990s, also experienced a change of ownership.
Many people should have the impression that Xurisheng at that time could be said to be a well-deserved national drink, especially its ice tea.
Xu Yangsheng comes from Ji County, Hengshui, Hebei Province. It is a tea drink launched by the county's supply and marketing cooperative in 1994. The earliest advertisement was a pair of twins. Later, Andy Lau was invited to endorse it. By 1998, sales revenue exceeded 3 billion yuan.
Due to management problems, Sunrise declined rapidly. By 2001, sales revenue dropped to less than 2 billion yuan, and its market share dropped from 70% to about 30%. It had to go bankrupt in 2007. In 2011, all 164 trademark ownerships were auctioned.
It was Huiyuan who obtained the Rising Sun trademark.
Subsequently, Xurisheng resumed listing and is still selling today. However, Huiyuan itself was unable to protect itself, and Xurisheng was obviously difficult to compare with its glory days.
There is another beverage brand that surpasses the previous brands in terms of fame and twists and turns. It is Jianlibao .
The history and glory of Jianlibao need no introduction. Since 2002, when founder Li Jingwei couldn’t get what he wanted, Jianlibao has embarked on the road of no return, being constantly resold.
In 2002, Zhang Hai and took over. It was during the ceremony that Li Jingwei left this photo of him looking up to the sky and sighing.
Looking at it in the future, Zhang Hai's taking over is more like a farce; in 2004, Zhu Weisha, who was famous at that time, teamed up with Ye Honghan, Li Zhida and others to take over Jianlibao; when At the end of the year, Huizhong Tianheng, owned by Li Zhida, took over Jianlibao and became the largest shareholder; later, it was reported that Huizhong Tianheng had transferred most of its shareholders to Ye Honghan; but soon after, Huizhong Tianheng transferred its equity to Uni-President Group, and Uni-President officially took over in 2007.
At the end of 2016, Uni-President transferred its equity to CITIC Asset Management Co., Ltd. , a subsidiary of the "CITIC Group".
So far, Jianlibao has changed hands five times in 15 years. From 2002 to 2005, it also experienced quite a chaotic situation.
It is said that Jianlibao was planning to go public after relying on the "CITIC Group". However, in the market, the "Chinese Magic Water" has long lost its glory.
What causes these national beverage brands to change hands frequently? Everyone is optimistic about their brand value, why can't they bring it back to glory? Can Huiyuan do it this time?
