Coca-Cola makes gains in Inca territory

MAKING ITS MARK Coca-Cola has joined forces with Inca Kola in Peru.

Things go better with Coke in Peru too. So well in fact that the U.S. company’s division in Peru, Coca-Cola Peru, has a consumer market penetration in the South American country of 90%, which is no small feat considering that Peru is traditionally a nation of fresh fruit drinkers, or considering the competition it had to overcome to chalk up those figures.
For some 65 years, the big name in the Peruvian cola industry has been Inca Kola, a brand name with as much of
a foothold on the Peruvian psyche as Coca-Cola has in the United States.

Rodolfo E. Salas Country Manager for Coca-Cola Peru

“In Peru there has always been a connection between Inca Kola and the happy times in a person’s life, and that
association has been passed on through generations,” notes Rodolfo E. Salas, country manager for Coca-Cola Peru.
So after years of pitched marketing battles, executives from the two companies shared a Coke and an Inca Kola and agreed in 1999 to join forces and get on with the business of selling soft drinks.
“The truth is that it was an arduous competition for years,” Mr. Salas recalls. “The joint effort was the best alternative, because the process of eating each other up prevented both of us from expanding the category.

“This is a business that requires us to visit our clients two or three times a week,” adds Mr. Salas. “And this frequency means we need a large number of trucks and salespeople. Now we have been able to expand at a faster rate and improve our system of routes.”
Mr. Salas takes pride in the fact that Coca-Cola Peru and the bottlers play an important social role in the country. Creating employment and raising funds for relief programs for the less fortunate, and for those who have suffered economic setbacks, are just a couple of examples, he explains.
“The secret is that Coca-Cola does not try to present itself as an American company that happens to be in Peru, but as a company of Peruvians that has its headquarters in the United States. And that’s something that’s especially important for us. We understand that we are neighbors in Peru, and so we have to take an active role whenever we can as part of our civic duty.”