Berberian Emmanuelle Huang LaoShi

Derveaux-Berté Caroline 04.06.2010

Wahaha and Danone, the history of a particular joint venture company

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Summary

I – Wahaha, a complete Chinese company…………………………………………………3

A – Wahaha’s history……………………………………………………………………….3

B – Main honors…………………………………………………………………………….3

C – Wahaha’s products……………………………………………………………………..4

D – Future exceptations…………………………………………………………………….6

II - The begining of the association…………………………………………………………6

A - Legal aspects……………………………………………………………………………6

B - The situation change: the breakdown…………………………………………………..7

1. - Cultural issues…………………………………………………………………….7

2. - Marketing strategy and investment issues………………………………………..7

3. - The final straw……………………………………………………………………8

III - Current settlement between Danone and Wahaha…………………………………….8

I – Wahaha, a complete Chinese company

A – Wahaha’s history

Established in 1987, Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd has developed into China’s largest and most profitable beverage company. Wahaha was formerly a sales department in a school run business of Changsheng district, with a loan of 140,000 RMB and 3 employees. Currently, Wahaha established 150 subsidiaries in 29 provinces, totally 58 production bases, with the total assets of 30 billion yuan, and 30000 employees. In 2009, Wahaha’s operation revenue reached 43.2 billion RMB (increased 31.6% on the yearly basis), the tax and profit reached 12.57 billion RMB.

For the 23 years, Wahaha, driven by constant innovation, improved the corporate technology level, and gained market initiative. Wahaha’s newly developed products led a new market trend, and took further lead in the development of China’s beverage industry. Wahaha owned the company technology center which is admitted by the nation, and the laboratory passed the CNAS (China National Accreditation Service). Wahaha shouldered its responsibility in the