El Comercio – ‘Alicorp launches Brands by your side, an initiative to contain prices with cheaper products’

The Peruvian mass consumption company launches ‘Brands by your side’, an initiative to contain the prices of 11 products in eight categories of its portfolio. This group of products will try to take care of prices as much as possible and will increase production and distribution in channels.

The rise in international prices of raw materials, the increase in freight costs, fuel costs for the distribution of products at the country level and the exchange rate are some of the factors that explain that today the products of basic necessities have experienced an increase in their consumer prices. Although the upward trend has been observed in the last 14 months, this curve has sharpened in recent months, thus hitting -and even more- the pockets of consumers in the midst of a pandemic. The trend does not seem to reverse in the short term.

According to the latest INEI report, the consumer price index, for example, of products such as oils rose by 44% in the last 12 months.

Given this scenario and being Alicorp – the mass consumption company of the Romero group – one of the main mass consumption companies in the country, it has announced that in the face of this scenario it proposes actions to support the most vulnerable families in this adverse context, for which which is launching the initiative Brands by your side , which consists of having selected 11 products, nine brands from eight categories of its portfolio, which will have in common a greater presence in the channels and more accessible prices.

As Alfredo Pérez Gubbins, CEO of Alicorp, explains, to this newspaper the objective will be to prioritize these products within the company’s portfolio, for which it will seek to give priority to the production of these brands, as well as expand and strengthen their coverage in the country and, as far as possible, contain the rise in prices of these products in the different channels.

At this time, the initiative is in full development and in the stage of facilitating greater access to them through their arrival at more points of sale.

The brands that will be part of this group of Brands by your side are Mirasol (oil), Espiga de Oro (noodles), Favorita (flour), Soda Sayón (cookies), Vanilla Day (cookies), Strawberry Stuffed Day (cookies) , Trome (washing soap), Jumbo (washing soap), Aval (toilet soap), Patito (detergent and bleach) . All of them are highly demanded categories and brands that Alicorp has already had for some time, commented from the company. They have in common that they are all brands with affordable prices that, as the company states, “will do everything to take care of it as long as possible.”

A few days ago, through a statement, the Peruvian food giant explained that in the last fourteen months various useful commodities in its production chain have accumulated increases of up to three digits, which added to speculation with the dollar and the price international oil prices made the final product more expensive.

“The international price of soybean oil has risen 106.82%, that of wheat 82.41%, that of corn 60.95%, among others. At a global level, there is a greater demand for raw materials related to the economic reactivation of China, greater demand for oils for the production of biofuels in some countries and lower harvests in some producing countries,” Alicorp explained.

Given that it is difficult to have a projection on when this context will be overcome, they indicate that it will depend on how all the factors that raise costs evolve and in which upward pressures are still observed.

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