Danone & Wahaha- a remake of "Mr China"

[Long Pan]

When I read about Danone being stuck with its Chinese partner Wahaha in what used to be one of the most successful JV in China (see this article), I just can't help thinking about the excellent "Mr China" from Tim Clissold. Hope that the French yogurt company will get a better issue than the Wall Street bankers did in the book !

[zhwj]

There's more than a bit of demagoguery on Zong Qinghou's part.

Zong is demanding that Danone make a public apology in addition to nullifying the "unfair provisions" in the contract (compete clause and trademark licensing clause). Also, from this link:

[in translation]As for the "offshore companies" set up overseas by Zong Qinghou's wife and daughter, Zong said that although the shares are held his own name and those of his family members, in reality they belong to the employees; they only nominally belong to Zong and his family. The past few years, the company has shared bonuses with company employees using the shares.

It's an interesting play. Wonder if it'll work.

[heifeng]

According to the China daily article,

the protests were spontaneous.

heheh I usually have color coordinated, enlarged, glossy printed signs whenever the mood strikes me to spontaneously protest as well wahahahahahahahaha