"Take medicine and drink alcohol", the former richest man fell down!

Why did the former "Big Brother of Yujiu" end up like this?

Author: Chen Jiali Sui Kun

Editor: Chen Jiali

"Running here and there, drinking the good wine of Song River" was once a popular saying The words of the advertisement are still in my ears, but in the blink of an eye everyone is gone.

Recently, Henan Songhe Liquor Co., Ltd. has been exposed to heavy news. The company has applied to the court for bankruptcy review. As of November 10, it has entered the bankruptcy reorganization stage according to the process.

In addition, Songhe Winery has been listed as a dishonest executor in 39 cases, 106 cases of restricting high consumption, and 10 cases of forced execution by the court. It can be said that Songhe Winery is heavily in debt and ridden with lawsuits. It seems that it is applying for bankruptcy review. It is also a matter of course.

Why did the former "Big Brother of Yujiu" end up like this? There is a key figure behind this - Zhu Wenchen.

In 2002, when Songhe Winery was facing operating difficulties, Zhu Wenchen of Furen Pharmaceuticals transformed into a "white knight" and bought it for 50 million yuan, and changed its name to Songhe Winery. Industry.

In the past 20 years, under the leadership of Zhu Wenchen, Songhe Winery has experienced moments of glory, but was eventually dragged into the abyss of bankruptcy.

With the rise and fall of Songhe Wine Industry, Zhu Wenchen himself has experienced ups and downs. From the richest man in Henan to the "Lao Lai", his fate is full of mystery.

"Take medicine and drink alcohol"

In his hometown of Luyi County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, Zhu Wenchen's name is a household name, and many people are talking about his story. But the strange thing is that when asked about the history of his fortune, few people can explain it clearly.

Some media once asked him about this issue, and he simply said, "Heroes don't ask where they come from." Among the several versions circulating locally, the most mainstream theory is that he made his fortune in the stone business in Shanxi in his early years.

Zhu Wenchen likes to link the starting point of his career with Henan Sanwei Pharmaceutical, which was established in 1993. That was the starting point for this "Henan Medicine King" to enter the pharmaceutical industry.

In 1995, Zhu Wenchen began to prepare for the establishment of Furen Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. Two years later, Furen Pharmaceutical was officially incorporated with a registered capital of 120 million yuan.

After establishing Furen Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical businessman seemed to transform into a capital tycoon overnight, rapidly expanding his business scale through mergers and acquisitions.

Songhe Winery became Zhu Wenchen’s first “prey”.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the advertising slogan "Traveling here and there to drink Songhe's good wine" resounded across the country. Songhe Winery, founded in 1968, is a very popular and well-known wine company in Luyi.

Since entering the new millennium, due to market changes and other reasons, Songhe Winery has plummeted. By 2002, its operations were unsustainable.

It was at this time that Zhu Wenchen appeared.

After investing 50 million yuan to acquire the operating rights of Songhe Winery, Zhu Wenchen became a "capital giant" spanning the two star markets of medicine and liquor.

In the hands of Zhu Wenchen, the restructured Songhe Winery was brought back to life.

In 2003, Songhe Liquor's marketing volume reached 320 million yuan, keeping pace with Furen Pharmaceuticals, becoming the two "ace cards" in Zhu Wenchen's hands.

At that time, the industry joked that Furen Group had launched a new model of "taking medicine and drinking alcohol".

In the same year, Furen Pharmaceutical’s acquisition of Henan Kaifeng Pharmaceutical Group once again aroused heated discussion.

At that time, Furen Pharmaceutical was still a local pharmaceutical company, but the ancestors of Kaifeng Pharmaceutical were "broad".

The predecessor of Kaifeng Pharmaceutical was a state-owned enterprise named Kaifeng Pharmaceutical Factory, which was established in May 1945. In the 1950s, Kaifeng Pharmaceutical Factory was one of the only four pharmaceutical factories in the country that could produce vaccines. The famous mathematician Hua Luogeng once went to the factory to give lessons to the workers in person. In 1995, Kaifeng Pharmaceutical became the first company approved by the Ministry of Health to produce cephalosporin raw materials.

In 2000, during the reform of Kaifeng Pharmaceutical, Zhang Hai, the president of Jianlibao, the “national beverage” at that time, proposed to acquire it for 90 million yuan. But in the end, Kaifeng Pharmaceutical fell into the hands of Zhu Wenchen for 50 million yuan.

Zhu Wenchen’s ability to win Kaifeng Pharmaceutical at such a low price has made countless people think about it, but no one knows the secret. But it is undeniable that since then, the development of Furen Pharmaceutical has entered the "fast lane."

1.8 billion in cash "missed"

Until 2017, Zhu Wenchen was going smoothly in the pharmaceutical and liquor markets, at least it seemed that way.

In 2006, Furen Pharmaceutical went public through ST Minfeng and became the largest pharmaceutical company in Henan Province. At the same time, the development of Songhe liquor industry is also booming. In 2006, Songhe Liquor's market sales reached 680 million yuan, an increase of nearly 6 times compared with the time of acquisition.

In 2012, Zhu Wenchen, with a net worth of 7.6 billion yuan, won the title of the richest man in Henan for the first time. In 2013, with a net worth of 8.5 billion yuan, he once again ranked as the richest man in Henan.

But by 2017, the "script" suddenly changed.

That year, Zhu Wenchen replaced Wang_Yang, the former head of Songhe Wine Industry, known as the "Mulan of the wine world", and asked two of his relatives to take over. This brought him into controversy over nepotism.

Wang_Yang

At that time, Songhe Liquor Industry was no longer the "hot cake" with sales hitting new highs. According to the regional agent of a series of products of Zhengzhou Songhe Winery, Songhe Winery's product lines are very complex, and only a few series are best-selling.

This situation does not seem to be without reason. In order not to affect cash flow, large-scale corporate acquisitions are often accompanied by large-scale borrowing. During Zhu Wenchen's frantic "buy, buy, buy" process, his companies were mortgaged and financed countless times.

According to public information, as of the end of 2019, Songhe Winery had been involved in 422 lawsuits, with 12 mortgage loans due, and the amount to be repaid was approximately 1.9715 billion yuan.

In 2019, because Songhe Liquor Industry owed 28.65 million yuan in debt, Zhu Wenchen was enforced by the court 9 times because he "refused to perform the obligations determined by effective legal documents despite having the ability to perform", and was finally executed on July 7 On March 12, he was listed as a person subject to execution for breach of trust.

I thought that the decline of Songhe Liquor Industry would become Zhu Wenchen's biggest crisis, but misfortunes never come singly. Another incident that happened in the same year plunged him into "eternal disaster".

In 2019, Furen Pharmaceutical's first quarter financial report showed that revenue reached 1.369 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.02%, and there was still 1.816 billion yuan in cash on the account. Soon, Zhu Wenchen announced a decision-dividends.

Fu Jen Pharmaceuticals has never paid dividends in the 13 years since its listing, and Zhu Wenchen was also called the "Iron Rooster." This "hair plucking" couldn't help but cause investors to cheer.

But everyone was not happy for long. Only three days after the announcement, Zhu Wenchen suddenly and inexplicably announced a piece of "bad news": the company's account only had 3.3787 million yuan, and the dividend was cancelled.

Within 3 days, 1.8 billion in cash "missed". This dividend-style "explosion" caused an uproar in the market and also alarmed the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Many people began to doubt the authenticity of Furen Pharmaceutical's performance and annual report.

In October 2020, the "Administrative Penalty Decision" issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission clearly mentioned: "Furen Pharmaceuticals has false records in its major asset restructuring documents, as well as false records in multiple annual reports." Records, major omissions."

As the "Decision Letter" was issued, Zhu Wenchen also ushered in the most "embarrassing" moment in his life - being banned from the securities market for 10 years.

Can it be reborn?

According to media reports, the last time Zhu Wenchen appeared in public was at a symposium at Songhe Winery in August last year.

At that time, with a thin face and a slightly haggard expression, he personally introduced the operating conditions of Furen Pharmaceuticals and Songhe Liquor to the attendees, hoping to promote the development of the company through strategic asset reorganization with the support of all parties.

Zhu Wenchen

As everyone knows, after Songhe Winery was involved in the financial fraud scandal of Furen Pharmaceuticals, its fate of bankruptcy and reorganization was already doomed.

“The direct reason why Songhe Winery is on the verge of bankruptcy is that Furen Pharmaceuticals, as its parent company, is entangled in lawsuits, and the related debt crisis has affected Songhe Winery, causing the company to be unable to function normally. Operations and brand image have also been seriously affected," Cai Xuefei, a wine analyst and general manager of Zhiqu Marketing, told a reporter from Global People.

Domestic worries still exist, and external difficulties are difficult to solve.

Cai Xuefei said that in recent years, with the upgrade of the consumption structure of the entire industry, Chinese wine has entered the stock competition market. Regional brands like Songhe Winery, whose own brand value is not high enough and whose channel competitive advantage is not strong enough, are faced with a double attack from first-line famous wines such as Moutai, Wuliangye and Laojiao, as well as regional famous wines such as Yangshao and Dukang in Henan Province.

However, it should be noted that bankruptcy reorganization is different from bankruptcy liquidation, which is the complete death of the enterprise. In bankruptcy reorganization, through various measures such as reorganizing the debtor's assets, reaching a reorganization plan with creditors, and introducing strategic investors, there may be a chance for rebirth in the future.

Cai Xuefei believes that Songhe Winery, as a regional famous wine in Luyi, Henan, has certain brand historical and cultural inheritance and quality concept support. In future development, we should first focus on the local market, then gradually improve the product structure, and then expand externally. This is a more pragmatic path.

He suggested that Songhe Winery could consider new marketing models in the future, including the winery experiential marketing model and the new retail live broadcast model, etc., which are all good attempts.

Songhe Winery, which was rescued by Zhu Wenchen 20 years ago and dragged into the quagmire of debt by Zhu Wenchen 20 years later, is waiting for the next "white knight" to appear.

Director: Lu Hong

Producer: Zhang Jiankui

Editor-in-Chief: Xu Chenjing

Editor: Su Rui