Beverages News
- New brew stirs Wahaha/Danone dispute
Date: 21-Jun-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA'S largest drink maker Wahaha will soon start selling a new drink, with none of the profits to go to estranged French joint venture partner Danone, State press reported yesterday.
The tea drink will be made by a Wahaha subsidiary not linked to Danone and hit the market at the beginning of July, Wahaha Beijing's general manager Liu Hong told Chinese reporters.
The launch of the new drink comes as Wahaha continues to distance itself from the French food giant, following a spectacular break-up in their relationship that has seen both companies take legal action against each other.
'We must expel Danone from Wahaha or the fight will never end,'the Beijing News quoted Liu as saying as he briefed reporters on the new drink.
Danone, which owns 51-percent stakes in 39 joint ventures with Wahaha, has accused the Chinese drinks giant of setting up 20 independent companies and selling products identical to those sold by the joint ventures.
The French food giant is demanding a 51-percent stake in the non-joint venture companies, which Wahaha Group's chairman Zong Qinghou has rejected.
Meanwhile, Danone is facing an ever-deepening legal imbroglio, with another report saying yesterday that a shareholder in China's Bright Dairy Food, which is aligned with Wahaha, may sue the French firm.
HJ Vanguard Research and Consulting, which holds an unspecified stake in Bright Dairy, claimed in a statement that Danone's multiple holdings in Chinese food companies, including Bright Dairy, run counter to the interests of shareholders.
'Danone's bid on Wahaha jeopardizes a national brand and threatens the nation's economic security,'an HJ Vanguard spokesman as saying. 'We demand an immediate halt of such behavior by Danone.'
The firm has called upon the other shareholders of firms in which Danone has stakes to file collective lawsuits.
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