BaWang ChaJi hires former McDonald's CFO

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

The grassroots entrepreneurial story of Bawang Chaji has been planning for an all-around upgrade.

For a long time, Bawang Chaji has been committed to upgrading its stores and packaging to appear more fashionable. Since last year, planning for an IPO has also become a key focus for Bawang Chaji in the coming period.

On December 13th, Wall Street News learned that Bawang Chaji has recruited Huang Hongfei, the former CFO of McDonald's China, to serve as CFO. With the addition of this seasoned financial professional, Bawang Chaji is gearing up for its IPO.

Huang Hongfei is a veteran figure at McDonald's China, having worked there for nearly 30 years. He joined McDonald's China in 1995, with a brief departure in between. At the end of 2012, he was appointed CFO of McDonald's China, and he has held this position for 12 years now.

During this time, Huang Hongfei has also participated in several key events at McDonald's China. For instance, he was one of the promoters of the well-known upgrade of McDonald's China's equity structure.

However, Huang Hongfei's capabilities are not limited to finance; during his time at McDonald's, he also accumulated comprehensive business skills. This aligns with the current demands of Bawang Chaji.

In recent years, Bawang Chaji, which aims for continuous brand upgrades while planning for an IPO, has also undergone organizational changes. In addition to the CFO position, which is directly related to the IPO process, many executives from well-known companies and competitors have been brought in.

Founder Zhang Junjie, who admires Huawei's wolf culture, particularly favors executives from Huawei.

The previous CFO, Wan Hui, was the global finance deputy director at Huawei, and during his tenure, Bawang Chaji's overseas expansion was rapid; the supply chain head, Fu Xi, also worked as the supply chain head in Huawei's German and Russian markets, later becoming the former supply chain director at DJI and Heytea.

Additionally, there are several executives from the industry. For example, Hu Weiren, general manager of Bawang Chaji's product research center, previously served as the product department director at Gong Cha and Heytea; the legal and government affairs head, Quan Qifeng, came from Heytea, and the operations head, Lu Mian, was a co-founder of KRAFTEA.

Currently, in terms of upgrades, Bawang Chaji's fashion level, traffic level, and executive team are already on par with major companies in the industry, but the timing for planning an IPO still needs to be considered.

For the tea beverage sector, the golden era is no longer. The stories told by past popular tea brands are too repetitive for the capital market. Whether already listed or queued for listing, they have performed extremely mediocre in the capital market, making investors hesitant to invest.

However, recently, the International Cooperation Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a notice regarding the overseas issuance and listing filing of Guming Holdings Limited, indicating that Guming has obtained prior approval for overseas listing, which is a new signal for tea brands planning to go public.

Compared to Guming, Bawang Chaji clearly has greater ambitions. For the newly appointed Huang Hongfei, whether he can lead Bawang Chaji to carve out a new path for tea beverage listings is something the market looks forward to