The number of Wahaha's labor dispute lawsuits has surged, and Zong Fuli's troubles are far from over.

More than 18,000 yuan is not a huge sum, but it is exactly this amount that has landed Wahaha Group on the list of persons subject to enforcement.

On September 7, Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. was added a new record of person subject to enforcement, with the case number (2026) Zhe 0102 Execution No. 13900, the enforcing court being the People's Court of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, and the subject amount being 18,472 yuan. The applicant and the cause of the execution have not been made public yet.

There is nothing special about this amount itself. What is worth noting is a series of figures dug out following this record.

Judicial case information from Qichacha shows that from January 1 to September 9 this year, 27 labor dispute cases involving Wahaha Group have seen litigation progress. The number was 12 for the whole of last year, and only 4 the year before last. In less than nine months, the number has been more than double that of last year. And on September 10, Qichacha included another court hearing announcement for labor disputes of Wahaha Group — the number of cases is still on the rise.

This trend did not emerge suddenly. 10 of the 12 cases last year entered litigation procedures between September and December. Since labor disputes must go through the pre-arbitration procedure first, the court records usually lag behind the actual occurrence of the disputes. In July this year, the Labor and Personnel Dispute Arbitration Committee of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou once issued a notice of non-acceptance for a labor dispute filed by an employee against Wahaha Group, on the grounds that the matter did not fall within the scope of arbitration acceptance.

Among these 27 cases, a recurring pattern is that there is often more than just Wahaha Group on the defendant's seat. Hangzhou Wahaha Qili Food Group Co., Ltd. is involved in 12 cases, Hangzhou Wahaha Honghui Food and Beverage Co., Ltd. in 11 cases, and Hangzhou Wahaha Hongsheng Food and Beverage Marketing Co., Ltd. in 9 cases. In 7 of the cases, these three companies are listed as parties at the same time. In addition, Hongsheng Beverage Group Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Hongsheng Hengfeng Trading Co., Ltd. are each involved in 3 cases, including 1 case where the two companies are co-litigated.

All these companies have "Wahaha" in their names, but after penetrating the industrial and commercial information, the actual controller of some companies is Zong Fuli, rather than a subsidiary of Wahaha Group. The major shareholder of Qili Food is Zhejiang Qili Investment Co., Ltd., holding 51% of the shares. This investment company is 100% owned by Zong Fuli after the Wahaha employee stock ownership association withdrew at the end of 2024. Honghui Food is wholly owned by Hangzhou Hongchen Marketing Co., Ltd., which in turn is wholly owned by Hongsheng Group. Zong Fuli indirectly holds all the equity of Hongsheng Group and took office as the legal representative of Hongsheng Group in December 2025. Hongsheng Marketing is wholly owned by Hangzhou Xiaoshan Hongsheng Food Co., Ltd., where Zong Fuli holds 60% of the shares.

It is not common in judicial practice for multiple companies to jointly become parties to labor disputes. The information currently included in Qichacha has not disclosed the specific claims of these 27 cases, and the reason for the joint litigation of multiple companies has not been officially explained. However, this pattern overlaps in timeline with the situation of employees' labor contracts being transferred between Wahaha Group and Hongsheng-affiliated companies in previously public reports.

Wahaha Group was founded in February 1993, with a registered capital of about 530 million yuan, and its legal representative is Xu Simin. Its business scope covers the production, sales, investment and development of Wahaha series products. Zong Fuli officially took over the group in August 2024, and then promoted a large-scale personnel adjustment: according to public reports, about 6,000 employees were required to transfer their labor contracts from Wahaha Group to Hongsheng-affiliated companies, while the original "dry share" dividends held by employees were cancelled.

Relevant disputes emerged subsequently. In September 2024, according to a report from China.com Finance, nearly 700 current, resigned and retired employees spontaneously formed a rights protection association, and more than 50 employees filed lawsuits; another 53 retired employees sued Zong Fuli and Wahaha Group to the court, requesting to confirm that the relevant equity repurchase behavior was invalid. In February 2025, Caixin reported that some employees reflected that those who refused to sign the transferred contracts had their year-end bonuses or dividends affected; in June of the same year, 21st Century Business Herald cited sources saying that most of the national regional managers of the sales team had completed the contract transfer; in October, National Business Daily interviewed an employee whose labor contract was terminated for refusing to sign the transferred contract, and the case had entered the labor arbitration procedure at that time.

The current equity structure of Wahaha Group is: Hangzhou Shangcheng District Cultural Tourism Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. holds 46% of the shares, being the largest shareholder; Zong Fuli holds 29.4% of the shares; the Joint Committee of Grass-roots Trade Unions of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd. (Employee Stock Ownership Association) holds 24.6% of the shares. In September 2025, Zong Fuli resigned from her positions as legal representative and chairman, and completed the industrial and commercial change in November, with Xu Simin taking over, while her shareholding ratio remained unchanged.

On September 9, some media contacted Wahaha Group for issues including the specific claims of the 27 labor disputes, whether they are related to the labor contract transfer, the reason for the joint litigation of multiple companies, and which dispute the 18,472 yuan enforcement case corresponds to, and no reply was obtained as of press time.

4 cases, 12 cases, 27 cases. The figure is still rising.

Source: Xinghe Business Observation

This article is published on "ZAKER Finance" and authorized for release by 36Kr.