NEWS
JAPAN’S SUNTORY TO CRANK UP CRAFT GIN PRODUCTION, SALES COULD QUADRUPLE BY 2024
By Susan Lewis
9-3-2021
Source: Suntory Holdings
Japanese drinks giant Suntory Holdings is planning to invest ¥3.2billion (USD30million) to expand a gin distillery in Osaka with an aim of doubling production in 2022.
Suntory’s target is to lift its gin sales to ¥10bn a year by 2024, up from ¥1.5bn in 2020. Suntory said it will focus on domestic consumers first, before looking to expand export of its gins to overseas markets.
Despite that Japan's hospitality industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, more consumers had been drinking at home and that Japanese craft gins have proved to be a popular category in the past year.
Shipments of Suntory's craft gin brand Roku rose 22 percent in 2020. The company believes that Japanese drinkers prefer domestic spirits because they think locally produced drinks fit their tastes better.
Japanese business media Nikkei Asia quoted Tokyo-based market research company Intage Holdings as saying that sales of domestic gins overtook that of imported brands last year.
Although the value of Japan's gin exports declined in 2020, the trend had been upwards before COVID hit global market.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, Japanese gin exports in 2018 worth ¥1.7bn, representing an increase of 171 percent compared to 2017.
Suntory Sprits CEO Hideki Kanda told Nikkei Asia that Japanese craft gin, like Japanese whisky, is also becoming increasingly popular in overseas markets.
Kanda said demands from "Europe and USA in particular is growing, so we will continue to focus," on those regions. He also added that "there are opportunities in Asia," which the company sees as strategic markets.
Other major Japanese producers are also working to tap the increasing popularity of Japanese craft gins. Drinks giant Asahi is planning to expand its gin exports, the company is currently shipping to Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan.
A company spokesperson told Nikkei Asia that gin will be Asahi’s future point of expansion, as the popularity of its whisky has already stretched its whisky production capacity.
Even smaller producers are taking advantage of this Japanese craft gin boom. Yomeishu Seizo, which makes a traditional herbal liqueur, has rolled out a craft gin in 2019 and has started exporting to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Dubai.
The company told Nikkei Asia that their craft gin is popular in Asia because the botanicals they used are very familiar to Asian consumers.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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