ASIAWIDE Refreshments Corp. (ARC), maker of RC Cola soft drink brand, announced that it has already captured 30 percent of the cola market in Davao City, barely five months since the company opened its P500 million plant in Binugao, Davao City.

Its market share has been achieved based on an attainment of only 65 percent distribution capacity of the plant.

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"This proves that Dabawenyos like our product," Gerry Garcia, ARC executive vice president and chief operating officer, said during a press briefing Tuesday evening.

"The plant is not yet fully operational, but we are already giving the market an option at the same time empowering our dealers and distributors to boost their income," he said.

At present, RC Cola brand is being distributed by at least 300 "business partners" in Davao City and neighboring areas.

The company calls its dealers and distributors, mostly sari-sari store owners, as "business partners."

The Binugao plant is the company's sixth and the first to be established outside of Luzon. Five other bottling plants are situated in Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and Central Luzon.

Capturing almost one-third of the market in Davao City is not an easy feat for this new player in the beverage industry, although its executives believe the five-month period was so short a time for their cola products to make a niche in the market.

"We are not here to kill our competitors. We are here to provide the market and the dealers with an option... and we are on the right track," Garcia said.

He attributed RC Cola's fast growth in this part of country to the novelty of tasting a new product and brand recall. Garcia also pointed out that its "revolutionized" business model that focuses on building business partnership with dealers and distributors just worked for the company.

"We don't offer exclusivity. We are the only company that is open to competition," he said.

"In a monopolized market," the ARC executive said, "the dealers feel they are controlled. They feel they have no leverage to negotiate for a better deal. We come in and they have an option."

"We also visited our retailers and distributors. We give them incentives or ask them what we can do to improve their business," Garcia said.

At the moment, Garcia said the company is not looking into dominating the market and kill the competition, but rather focuses on areas that have remained untapped.

"The reason why we are here in Davao City. The soft drink market here continues to grow, posting the highest growth rate in the past years (as compared to other key cities in the country)," Garcia said.

Garcia, along with equally accomplished and enterprising, Tony Panajon, Gerry Garcia and Butch Aves, decided to set up their own softdrink company in 2002. Together with Alfredo Yao and Ricky Sandoval, successful entrepreneurs in their own right, they pooled their knowledge and competencies in the beverage industry to form to establish ARC.

Empowered with an exclusive license awarded by RC Cola, USA to manufacture and distribute RC Cola in the Philippines, ARC steadily gained recognition.

Under the guiding hand of its founders, ARC, a 100 percent Filipino owned, continues to flourish and is now a major player in the beverage industry. It has at least realized its vision to be the lowest cost producer of ready-to-drink, non-alcoholic beverages and to be able to market products with the best quality and value.

The all-time favorite cola in America since 1905 is now one of the preferred cola in Metro Manila. RC Cola is now available in 240 ml, 800 ml returnable bottles, 1.5 liter PET bottles and 330ml cans.

Garcia said they will continue with their expansion program, with the setting up of another bottling plant in Cagayan de Oro so as to serve Northern Mindanao.

The Binugao plant, he said, will also be tapped to serve the South Central Mindanao areas.