Lima, Sept 4 - Peruvian beverages company Ajegroup, which sells soft drinks in Latin America and Asia, launched its first beer this week and hopes to steal market share from SABMiller and InBev.
Aje, which is closely held by the Ananos family, will sell its "Franca" beer on its home turf in Peru's capital Lima and plans to soon have up to 15 percent of the Andean country's beer market.
Franca is being introduced as Peru's beer market is experiencing intense price wars -- where InBev has aggressively marketed its Brazilian brand Brahma since 2005 to pressure dominant brands of SABMiller's Backus y Johnston unit , such as Cusquenya. Backus dominates Peru's beer market and had 2006 sales of 1.569 billion soles ($497 million).
Aje, which has operations in 10 Latin American countries, has often gained footholds in new markets by selling its Big Cola brand in bigger bottles and at lower prices than competing brands of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
"We aren't the cheapest," said Alfredo Paredes, Aje's head of corporate affairs. "We normally sell in the middle of the price range of each category."
In Lima on Monday, a 600 ml bottle of a Backus y Johnston brew was selling for about 3.16 soles, Franca at about 2.70 and Brahma around 2.40.
Right now, Big Cola accounts for about 70 percent of Aje's total sales and it plans to reduce its reliance on Big Cola by introducing new products like beer, carbonated light drinks and a fruit cocktail in certain markets.
Aje was founded 20 years ago and last year sold 2.5 billion liters of beverages at an average price of 19 cents per liter.
"The trend is for Big Cola to comprise about 60 percent of sales, with 40 percent coming from other products and categories," Paredes said. ($1 = 3.16 soles)