Recently, "holding’Wahaha ‘and stepping on’Nongfu Spring’ storm" has attracted much attention from investors. As of the close on March 5, Nongfu Spring’s share price recorded a decline for three consecutive days. The market value fell from HK $499.30 billion to HK $467.30 billion, and the market value shrank by HK $32 billion (about RMB 29.40 billion).
According to previous media reports, on February 25, after the death of Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha Group, Nongfu Spring, which was located in Hangzhou with Wahaha, was caught in a whirlpool of public opinion. Nongfu Spring and its founder, chairperson, and general manager, Zhong Shanshan, were questioned and even slandered by netizens.
On March 3, the official Weibo of Nongfu Spring released the article "Zhong Shanxuan: My Second and Third Things with Zong Lao". In this article, Zhong Shanxuan expressed his admiration for Zong Lao many times, and also disclosed the source of his first pot of gold for the first time, and helped Zong Qinghou develop eight-treasure porridge products. More importantly, he clarified that he was not fired by Wahaha for flushing goods in his early years.
I thought the article would calm public opinion after it was published, but the results seem to add fuel to the fire.
On the same day, Zhou Li, deputy general manager of Nongfu Spring, wrote in Moments that perhaps the old gentleman (Zong Qinghou) did not expect that his death would be used by some so-called "melon eaters" to attack another company in the same city and become a hot topic of public opinion; the two companies were in the same city, and although they competed in the early years and even went to court, they still competed openly under the legal framework.
Since then, Nongfu Spring has not publicly spoken out about the above incident.
The continuous decline in the share price of Nongfu Spring has also triggered heated discussions among netizens.
The reporter saw comments such as "Try to avoid the products of Nongfu Spring in the future" and "Give up the whole series of Nongfu Spring" in "Nongfu Spring Bar", and also noticed "Support Nongfu Spring! Buy firmly!" "Farmer’s big ship is not afraid of small storms" and other posts.
Nongfu Spring currently ranks second in the popularity ranking of the Hong Kong stock market. Combined with the posting and comments of its stock bar, it can be seen that the discussion of Nongfu Spring by netizens is still ongoing.