Ajegroup

AJEGROUP

Type	Private company
Industry	Beverage
Founded	1988 by Añaños-Jerí Family Ayacucho, Peru
Headquarters	Lima, Peru
Key people	Angel Añaños, CEO & Chairman Carlos Añaños, managing director
Products	Beverages
Number of employees	10,000 (2005)
Subsidiaries	7
Website	www.ajegroup.com

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 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 12th among Latin American multinational companies. Besides Peru and Mexico, Ajegroup also has operations in Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nigeria, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Egypt. 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.

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, Nigeria, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India. Ajegroup's main competitors are big companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

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.