A standard-setting jelly maker lasted 20 years — then its factory was auctioned on JD.com

东莞市金娃食品工业有限公司 was founded in July 1999 in Xiegang Town, Dongguan. Its 100-mu Jinwa Industrial Park opened in 2001 and at peak employed over a thousand workers. The company was one of China's largest preservative-free jelly and pudding manufacturers, and helped draft the national jelly standard QB1432-2001 and GB19883-2005. Its products were exported to multiple countries, and in 2019 it was named to Guangdong Province's Top 500 Brand Reputation list.

But 2019 was also the year operations effectively stopped. By the time a reporter visited the factory in 2024, the campus was overgrown with weeds, machines sat idle, and expired jelly was still in the warehouses. The company's registered capital was just ¥3.09M — a strikingly thin base for a manufacturer that had once run a 100-mu industrial park. Its business scope, meanwhile, had been amended to include smart robots, smart watches, and toys alongside food production — a pivot that never materialised.

In July 2021, a supplier — 东莞市顶卓环保材料 — filed a bankruptcy liquidation petition with the Dongguan Intermediate Court. The case was assigned to the Dongguan Third People's Court in November 2021. During the proceedings, it emerged that Jinwa had signed land and property transfer contracts with three real estate companies (中惠熙元, 富旸投资, 悦旸投资) in an attempt to monetise its factory site. The court voided those contracts in 2024, and the companies had to be ordered to vacate — they had changed the locks, blocked entrances, and even kept dogs on the premises.

On 30 June 2025, the court formally declared 金娃食品 bankrupt. In November 2025, its industrial land and 14 buildings in Xiegang Town were put up for auction on JD.com. The bankruptcy case was closed at the end of December 2025.