[뉴스人사이드]Who is this person who came up with the highest code in the midst of beating Chinese authorities?

Founder of bottled water company Nungfu Shanquan, Chairman of Zhongshan Shan

[아시아경제 권재희 기자] There is a man who has risen to China’s highest rank, overtaking Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba and the founder of Mahwa Teng, Tencent. Zhongshan Shan Shan (66) is the founder of Nungfu Shan Quan and is the chairman. As a water business, he became one of the best in China as well as Asia, earning most of his fortune last year alone, boasting the fastest rate of wealth growth in history.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the 3rd, Zhongshan Mountain’s fortune was 78.2 billion dollars (about 85 trillion won), ranking 11th in the world. Of these, it was confirmed that $70.9 billion has increased during the year of 2020. Last year, vaccine manufacturers Wantai Bio and Nongfusan Quan were listed one after another.

After listing, Wantai Bio’s share price rose about 20 times, and Nongfu Shanquan’s share price rose 155%.

Bloomberg said, “Chairman Zhongshan has accumulated wealth at the fastest pace in history.”

Against this background, he is often mentioned with Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba. This is because Ma Yun, who has been properly ugly in the Chinese government last year, has greatly reduced his wealth due to various regulations from the Chinese authorities, while Chairman Jung has become China’s highest wealthy man in 2020. Marwin’s fortune plunged from $61.7 billion in October to $50.6 billion as of January 3 this year.

Chairman Jung was born in 1954 to a wealthy family in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. However, during the Cultural Revolution, when my parents were purged, they dropped out in the fifth grade of elementary school. Since then, Chairman Jung has transferred several jobs, such as working as a construction worker, and then devoted himself to his studies and graduated from college with difficulty. After graduating from college, he worked as a reporter for a local newspaper, thinking that there would be tremendous business opportunities in China. It was the 1990s, when China gradually embraced the market economy and opened its doors.

The first business he started after quitting journalists was a company that made health supplements. His first business was prosperous, as if to compensate for his past difficult days. He made a lot of money from the beginning, and based on this, he founded Nungfu Shanquan in 1996, which made him today.

There was only one philosophical rule he set up while starting a bottled water company.

‘Do not use tap water’

There are more than 400,000 bottled water companies in China, but most of them sell distilled water that has filtered impurities from ordinary water. He uses water from the national protected water source of Cheandaohu in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, which is famous for being clean in China, based on the perception that as the Chinese economy develops, more consumers will seek safe and clean water. As if emphasizing this, Nungfushanquan said,’We do not make water. It only carries the great nature.’

As he predicted, as China’s economy developed, the demand for safe and clean water exploded, and Nungfushan Quan was truly on the path of growth.

Bottled water in Nungfushan Quan has three times higher equipment and distribution costs than other bottled water companies. However, Chairman Jung continued to invest in securing distribution networks and automated facilities without breaking the strict rule of “providing high quality natural water without using tap water”. As a result, Nungfushan Quan has a system that can make 81,000 bottles of high-quality mineral water per hour.

As a result of Chairman Jung’s generous investment in distribution and facilities, the operating margin and net margin as of 2019 achieved 55% and 21%, respectively. In particular, the margin of bottled water reaches 60%. Nungfushanquan has achieved the No. 1 market share in the Chinese bottled water market for the last eight years in a row. The gap with the second-largest company is more than doubled, making it the overwhelming number one.

Chairman Jung didn’t settle for it, but expanded into the beverage business, including fruit juice drinks in 2003 and functional drinks in 2004. However, rather than expanding the octopus, it focused on’well-being’ to preserve the corporate identity. After establishing another identity as a sugar-free drink, it built a corporate brand.

However, Chairman Zhong San-san is sometimes referred to as a’mystery sign’ because he rarely engages in external activities. Networks are important to do business in China, and he has not joined any businessmen’s meetings or political groups.

Bloomberg news agency introduced, “His business is not intertwined with other people, so it is said to be a’lone wolf’ locally.”

Reporter Kwon Jae-hee [email protected]