Wahaha Apologizes Over Unpaid Employee Housing Funds as Office Building Is Seized

Chinese beverage company Wahaha has apologized after a dispute over unpaid employee housing provident fund contributions at a former production facility in Heilongjiang Province drew widespread attention.

On September 18, Wahaha issued a statement concerning the housing provident fund issue involving its former Hulin operation. The company said it was “deeply sorry” and acknowledged its responsibility to protect employees' legal rights.

Wahaha said it had immediately begun reviewing the matter and was proceeding with the required back payments. The company said the relevant funds had already been transferred to an account designated by the Jixi Housing Provident Fund Management Center and that it was working with authorities to ensure the money is credited to individual employees as soon as possible.

The controversy emerged after a property belonging to Hulin Hongsheng Beverage Co., formerly known as Hulin Wahaha Beverage Co., was placed under court preservation in August.

A notice from the Jixi Jiguan District People's Court showed that a property measuring about 2,889 square meters in Hulin was sealed on August 20, 2026, for a period of three years. The court notice itself did not publicly disclose the applicant or specific cause of the preservation proceeding.

A staff member at the Hulin branch of the Jixi Housing Provident Fund Management Center confirmed to media that the property seizure was related to efforts to recover unpaid housing provident fund contributions. The recovery process was still underway, the official said.

Former employees told Chinese media that the Hulin facility had stopped operations around the end of March. They said more than 100 workers had collectively been owed more than 2 million yuan in housing provident fund contributions before the plant shut down. The reports said employees subsequently submitted supporting documents and contacted the local housing provident fund authorities.

The Hulin facility is now operated under the name Hulin Hongsheng Beverage. Public reports identify it as a former Wahaha production site, and the company has since undergone changes in its corporate naming and structure.

In its September 18 statement, Wahaha described the matter as a failure to conduct a sufficiently thorough review of historical issues. It said the company would launch a special review of employee rights protections across the group, improve its internal management procedures and take steps to prevent similar problems from occurring again.

The company did not characterize the situation as a dispute over whether employees were entitled to the funds. Instead, its statement focused on completing the outstanding payments and ensuring that the relevant amounts are credited to affected workers.

The case has attracted attention because housing provident fund contributions are an important employment benefit in China. Employers and employees generally contribute to the system, which can help eligible workers with housing-related expenses and loans.

For the affected former Wahaha employees, however, the immediate issue is practical: recovering contributions that they say were not fully paid during their employment.

Wahaha's latest statement indicates that the repayment process has now moved forward, with the relevant funds transferred to the designated account. The remaining step is to complete individual account credits and resolve the outstanding employee claims.