Embotelladora Chasqui
| Type | Public company (family controlled) |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founder(s) | Atoq Mamani |
| Area served |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie Vegno Natopia |
| Key people | Marisol Mamani (chief executive) |
| Products |
|
| Revenue | NAX€1.9 billion (1759 AN) |
| Employees | 9,800 (1759 AN) |
Embotelladora Chasqui is a New Alexandrian soft drink company headquartered in Parap, in the Wechua Nation. Founded by Atoq Mamani in 1712 AN to bottle chicha morada, it is the largest firm in the federation's soft drink industry, with about 28 percent of domestic volume in 1760 AN. Its best-known product, Chasqui Morada, is a carbonated purple corn drink sold almost only in Nouvelle Alexandrie. The Mamani family controls the company, and a minority of its shares trade publicly.
History
Atoq Mamani was a Parap trader who bought chicha morada from neighborhood workshops and resold it in the market towns of the highlands. The inflation of the Recession of 1709 raised the cost of sugar and glass bottles and put many of those workshops out of business. Mamani bought the equipment of several of them and in 1712 AN opened a single bottling works in Llamkay Urqu, or Company Hill, the city's main business district. He named it after the chasqui, the relay runners who carried messages across the Wechua highlands, and a running chasqui became the company's emblem.
When Chasqui and a dozen smaller bottlers founded the Consorcio Envase Federal in 1716 AN to share a common stock of returnable glass, the pool adopted Chasqui's bottle as its standard. Other members had to fill and return bottles of Chasqui's design, which tied distribution in the highlands to the company until the 1730 ANs.
Chasqui began carbonating its morada in 1725 AN. The fizzy version traveled better and kept longer than the still drink, and over the next decade it reached shops across the Wechua Nation and the large cities. The company opened plants in Rimarima, Wechuahuasi, Punta Santiago and Cárdenas and added a cola and fruit sodas to its range. Its first serious competitor arrived in 1734 AN, when Agrifoods launched Brio Beverages.
The fashion for Vegnese food and drink, including Acqua Munnissima's bottled water, that followed Vegno's entry into the Concord Alliance Treaty Organization in 1738 AN cut into Chasqui's premium sales. In 1743 AN the company formed Chasqui Internacional, an export company that sells Chasqui drinks in Vegno and Natopia. Chasqui owns 51 percent of it and the Cunno family, whose founder Marmo Cunno established Acqua Munnissima, owns 49 percent.[1] The domestic company remained New Alexandrian-owned.
Chasqui released Morada Ligera, a reduced-sugar version of its main drink, in 1752 AN. Oportia joined the federation in 1755 AN following the Oportian integration referendum, 1755, and in 1756 AN Chasqui bought an Oportian bottler, added its three plants to the group and launched a zero-sugar line, Chasqui Sin. Brio's stevia-sweetened Zero colas, backed by multipack price cuts, took about two points of share from Chasqui in 1758 AN.
Products
Chasqui Morada accounts for more than half of the company's volume. It is made from highland purple corn boiled with pineapple, clove and cinnamon, like the traditional drink, then carbonated. Part of its sweetening is chancaca, an unrefined cane sugar, from the Rimarima refinery of Real Azucarera de Santander, which stands next to Chasqui's Rimarima plant.[2] Morada Ligera uses less sugar, and Chasqui Sin uses none.
The company also sells Chasqui Cola, orange and lemon-lime sodas, and spring water from Mount Lacara. Most of its drinks are sold in returnable 330 milliliter and one liter glass bottles from the Consorcio Envase Federal pool, with plastic multipacks for supermarkets.
Operations
Chasqui runs about 22 bottling plants in Nouvelle Alexandrie, and in 1759 AN it employed about 9,800 people and had revenue of about NAX€1.9 billion. Its source water comes from springs on Mount Lacara, where the company shares the watershed with Apu Natural Spring Water. The two firms have contested water allocations before the authorities of the Wechua Nation several times since the 1740 ANs. Parap Beverage Distributors carries Chasqui drinks to many retailers outside the highlands.
Management
Marisol Mamani, a descendant of the founder, is chief executive, and members of the family hold most seats on the board. Chasqui holds the largest single vote on the board of the Consorcio Envase Federal but has no veto, an arrangement smaller members insisted on when the pool grew beyond the highlands.
