On the morning of April 1, it was reported that Zhejiang Wahaha intelligent robot Co., Ltd., an artificial intelligence robot company established by Wahaha, was not a joke on April Fool's day. The company was established on March 27, 2019, with a registered capital of 40 million yuan, and its legal representative is Zong Qinghou. The business scope of the company includes: R & D, manufacturing and sales of intelligent robots, machine equipment and parts.
Wahaha Commercial Co., Ltd. is the major shareholder of the company, accounting for 65% of the shares. Zong Qinghou is the legal representative and ultimate beneficiary of the company, and serves as the chairman of the board, holding 52.15% of the shares.
Why do traditional beverage giants want to be robots? In fact, as early as 2016, Wahaha Group had the idea of making robots, which has been put into practice. 'we've developed robots for bombs, robots for lead-zinc TVs, because lead-zinc damages lung function. 'Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha Group, said in an interview with Caixin media in March 2017 that the company is cooperating with the University of Israel and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to make robots and research and develop core components.
In the face of the decline of the domestic beverage market, Wahaha began its strategic transformation a few years ago. In addition to robots, Wahaha has also tried commercial real estate, children's clothing, milk powder, liquor and other industries. Wahaha previously had two mechanical and electrical factories, which were used to produce its own molds and some auxiliary beverage equipment. Zong Qinghou said that Wahaha had been making molds for many years before, but he didn't mention it.
Founded in 1987, Wahaha mainly produces more than 100 kinds of products in eight categories, including milk drinks, drinking water, carbonated drinks, juice drinks, tea drinks, health food, canned food and leisure food. It is the largest food and beverage enterprise in China. In 2013, the revenue of Wahaha reached a peak of 78.3 billion yuan, which has been declining since then. In 2017, the total revenue of Wahaha was only 46.4 billion yuan, which has shrunk by nearly half.