Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of Wahaha Group Co Photo: Courtesy of Wahaha

Chinese drinks giant Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co is looking to cash in on the country's increasing focus on battling pollution with plans to invest in tail gas filtration equipment, its founder told the Global Times in an interview on Monday.

The increase in car purchases itself is not the main cause of air pollution in the country, but rather the imperfection of auto parts linked to fuel processing - fuel injectors and tail gas filtration equipment - and these should be blamed for the haze problem, said Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of the company who is also a National People's Congress deputy.

"There is surely a great opportunity emerging for [developing business plans in the field]," he told the Global Times.

Increased public focus on environmental protection has caused the Chinese government to pay great attention to the issue, so the environmental protection sector is a good option for investment, Yan Qiang, an industry analyst with Beijing Hejun Consulting, told the Global Times Monday.

Specific policies and regulations for heatedly discussed environmental matters are expected to come out during the ongoing two sessions, creating opportunities for related companies, said Yan.

The analyst, however, holds a wait-and-see attitude toward Zong's move into high-tech sectors.

High-tech business such as environmental protection can hardly bring a fortune to the drinks firm unless Zong forms a proper and independently organized management team for the new business, Yan noted.

"Different industries have different strategies," Yan said.

Zong revealed in the interview that his company had considered co-investments with a British tail gas filtration gear manufacturer, which he did not identify, to carve out a foothold in the Chinese market.

But the plan was suspended as the British firm does not own the intellectual property for making the gear, said Zong, noting that Wahaha will continue investing in the field.

As part of its diversification strategy, Wahaha has also been branching out into robotics and is considering buying small overseas high-tech firms at an undisclosed time, according to Zong.

The company has been trying hard to seek new potential, as its pillar beverage business is struggling with fierce industry competition and downward economic pressure, said analysts.

Given the high operating costs and the lack of high value-added products, 2014 would witness Wahaha's worst performance over the past few years, Zong was quoted as saying by domestic news portal cnr.cn on December 14, 2014.

For 2014, the group is expected to rack up about 72.8 billion yuan ($11.64 billion) in revenue, a 7 percent fall from 78.2 billion yuan in 2013, according to the report.

The growth of the beverage sector is slowing down, but Wahaha still has a chance to survive and even make a good fortune in the sector as long as it starts ramping up efforts to boost its product range in accordance with varying demand, said Yan.

The promising e-commerce sector appears to be another bandwagon that Zong would like to jump into.

Zong said that Wahaha had previously contemplated creating its own e-commerce business, but now the firm is planning to cooperate with established e-commerce platform operators, without disclosing further details on potential partnerships being considered.

Regarding the company's increasing investment in other sectors, Yan is concerned that the cash flow of Wahaha may be affected.

Zong said he will consider getting its subsidiaries listed, but showing no intention of letting the parent company of Wahaha file for an IPO.