By Chris Aspin and Gabriela Lopez
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Femsa, Latin America's top soft drink and beer maker, plans to expand its Oxxo retail chain by almost two stores a day for up to six years to help drive sales of its Sol beer and Coke products.
Chief Financial Officer Javier Astaburuaga told Reuters on Thursday Oxxo will open about 650 stores per year for the next four to six years and will look to export the Oxxo format to other countries in the medium term.
The store chain is a cornerstone of Femsa's business strategy and sells Femsa's beers, such as Tecate and Dos Equis, and soft drinks alongside snacks and bread. Femsa FMX.MXFEMSAUBD.MX had 4,141 stores at the end of 2005.
Last year, Femsa opened 675 Oxxo stores and this year's target is 650 new stores.
"What Oxxo is clear on is that Oxxo has a good number of years ahead to be able to grow at the same rate that it has been growing," Astaburuaga said at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit. "The medium term target over four to six years is to grow at this rate."
Although it only operates in Mexico, Oxxo is Latin America's largest retail store chain in terms of unit numbers and this year Femsa will spend $150 million in expanding its reach.
Femsa executives often say Oxxo is a "mom and pop store on steroids" and it has been the company's star unit in recent quarters. Oxxo's same store sales -- those open 12 months or more -- rose 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
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