Ajegroup

AJEGROUP

Type	Private
Industry	Beverage
Founded	1988 by Añaños-Jerí Family Ayacucho, Peru
Headquarters	Lima, Peru^[1]
Key people	Angel Añaños, CEO & Chairman Carlos Añaños, Managing Director
Products	Beverages
Number of employees	10,000 (2005)
Subsidiaries	7
Slogan	Calidad internacional a precio justo.
Website	www.ajegroup.com

700 ml Caral

AJEGROUP is a multinational company dedicated to the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. The company was started by the Añaños Family in Ayacucho, Peru and now is headquartered in Lima, Peru and in Madrid, Spain ^[2] It is known for its flagship products Kola Real and Big Cola. Ajegroup is privately owned by Grupo Embotellador ATIC of Madrid, Spain, the holding company owned by the Añaños-Jerí Family from Ayacucho, Peru.

Ajegroup has approximately 10,000 employees and operates in 22 countries across five continents, placing it twelfth among Latin American multinational companies.^[3] Besides Peru and Mexico, Ajegroup also has operations in Brazil,^[4] Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India,^[3] Indonesia, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Its portfolio includes beverages, juices, nectars, light beverages, bottled natural water, dairy and beer. It manages 17 trademarks in 48 different presentations of PET and glass bottles, and also cans.

History

Ajegroup began in the late 1980s by the Añaños family in Ayacucho, Peru during the Peru's military and terrorist conflict. This situation did not allow many vehicles to access the area where the family lived and many traditional soft drink brands were not available to the customers in the area. The Añaños family saw this as a business opportunity and they developed Kola Real by using typical kitchen equipment and using recycled beer bottles. They first sold their drink products to their neighbors, local people, and soon the demand grew quickly and they began a leading soft drink company. Ajegroup eventually expanded to countries other than Peru. They have businesses in Venezuela, Ecuador, Central America, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India. Ajegroup's main competitors are big companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi.^[5]^[6]

Mission and goals

Ajegroup's Mission: "Contribute to develop society wealth by being the best-elaborated products' choice and seeking excellence from an integral perspective." Ajegroup's Vision: "Being one of the top 20 multinational enterprises by year 2020."^[7]

Strategy

Ajegroup employs certain strategies to help maintain its low cost economic plan. Ajegroup has bottling plants in Huejotzingo, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. The largest of the plants is in Huejotzingo, where production lines run for 24 hours a day, six days a week. Ajegroup therefore produces its own plastic bottles, which provides a low-cost alternative to glass returnable bottles and has helped brands like Big Cola compete with bigger names like Pepsi and Coca Cola. Ajegroup also utilizes lean staffing to cut costs, and modern equipment and kaizen, or continuous improvement, to help reduce the number of workers on each of the Huejotzingo plant's seven production lines to eight, which is fewer than half that of a typical bottling facility. Ajegroup also gives deliveries to independent truckers rather than employing their own fleet of trucks and drivers, saving money on distribution. This, in addition to their minimal advertising technique, further reduces its costs. Ajegroup has had few television and billboard ads, and primarily relies on word of mouth to find customers.^[8]

Ajegroup and the Football Association in England signed an exclusive license agreement to promote in six countries across Asia (India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia) for 2 years.^[9]

In 2011, Ajegroup took out their first bond, worth 200 million US dollars to finance future growth.^[10]

Strategy in India

Ajegroup officially launched its flagship no-caffeine cola brand, Big Cola as a soft launch in December 2010 in Mumbai, India. They strategically made ties with the release of the Sony Pictures movie, 'The Amazing Spider-Man', in theaters. Big Cola launched limited editions of The Amazing Spider-Man bottles in three flavors until August 2012. According to Sorin Voinea, Director of Marketing (Asia Pacific), Ajegroup doesn't have intentions of necessarily competing with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but more so, to follow their accomplishments. Big Cola is not only differentiating themselves through alternative methods of endorsement but also with being caffeine-free and having lower prices. While some are skeptical that Big Cola will stand out, Ajegroup's Sorin Voinea believes that their product has enough of its own identity to be successful in the Indian soft drink market. Devendra Chawla, president of the food & fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), says that the response to the brand has been good at Big Bazaar. “It is available at Big Bazaar in Mumbai and has done pretty well."^[11]^[12]

Brand names

Kola Real
Big Cola
Agua Cielo — a Peruvian brand of bottled water owned by the Ajegroup and sold in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia.^[13] Cielo is sold in glass bottles of 400 ml and PET bottles of 625 ml, 2 litre, 2.5 litre and 7 litre.^[13]
Free World
Free World Light
Pulp
Oro
Cifrut
First
Sporade
Citrus Punch
Free Tea
Cerveza Franca
Cerveza Caral — a Peruvian brand of beer owned by AJE. It's the company's second brand on the beer market after Franca.^[14]
Club Especial