Jinro invests in UK as Q1 sales rise
After first-quarter sales soared by 41%, Korean soju Jinro is continuing to expand its UK presence with an activation at this year’s Taste of London festival.
The world’s biggest-selling spirit brand, Jinro, has been focusing on the UK market since 2022, partnering with music festivals such as London’s All Points East for three years in a row.
This year, the brand is set to launch a Discovery Bar at one of the UK’s biggest food festivals, Taste of London.
The annual event is held in Regent’s Park in London with this year’s festival falling on 18-22 June.
The Jinro Discovery Bar will offer immersive activities, including the ‘Discover Your Flavour’ experience, games and sampling.
The flavour experience asks visitors a series of questions before recommending one of Jinro’s six variants that are ‘best suited’ to a particular personality.
The range includes grapefruit, strawberry, plum, peach, green grape, and Fresh.
A Jinro terrace with parasolled seating and two complimentary games will also be on offer, allowing participants a chance to win merchandise.
The Discovery Bar will be hosted by spirits educator and mixologist Tye Biswas, who will also provide guided tastings.
“We are excited to bring the passion and energy of Jinro to the Taste of London festival and give visitors a taste of both the soju and the spirit of Korea,” said Hwang Jung-Ho, managing director of HiteJinro.
“We are proud to invest in this well-respected event and look forward to introducing Jinro to increase awareness and build on our strong sales growth that we’ve seen in the UK over the last six years of active marketing.”
To mark its participation in Taste of London, Jinro has collaborated with Manchester-based illustrator Jessica Lee to create a limited edition t-shirt for the event, featuring Jinro characters, Mrs Plum and Mr Green Grape. The t-shirts will be available to buy at Taste of London.
In July 2024, Jinro reported a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73% in the UK over the last three years.
Jinro will continue to invest in the UK in 2025 with a focus on growing mainstream retail listings and maintaining collaborative activities in the on-trade.
The company has secured listings in UK supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Costco, Morrisons, and Tesco.
Jung-Ho added: “We’re working to increase distribution by accelerating our presence in mainstream retail channels – starting with Tesco – and expanding our SKU offerings.
“At the same time, we’re actively participating in local offline events to further raise brand awareness.
“As a cultural hub and one of our top export destinations in Europe, the UK is a key strategic market and serves as a launchpad for broader marketing efforts across the continent.”
Globalising soju
Jinro has been on a mission to establish the soju category internationally. The company is aiming to enter new regions and boost its volumes through on-trade promotions.
The Korean soju has enhanced its market reach with the company seeing “more balanced growth” across multiple regions outside of its core Southeast Asia and Japan markets, including China, the US, Europe and Latin America.
“In 2017, when we first announced our vision to globalise soju, most of our overseas consumers were Korean expatriates,” Jung-Ho told The Spirits Business last month. He noted that recent global research showed that over 90% of respondents are now aware of soju, and more than 80% of consumers are local.
“In July 2024, we updated our vision to focus on the ‘popularisation of Jinro’ and are now executing strategies aligned with this direction. We strongly believe Jinro has the potential to become a mainstream spirit in the global liquor market.”
Since 2017, Jinro notes that the global soju market has grown by more than 2.5 times, with over one million monthly Google searches for soju-related keywords.
The company has also tapped into the “growing demand for flavour products”, particularly in the flavoured alcoholic beverage (FAB) space, where it has launched a lemon-flavoured soju using “advanced brewing techniques”.
Last year, the brand’s volumes reached 96.8 million nine-litre cases, down by 0.6% on the previous 12 months.
Jinro’s approximate 41% volume increase in the first quarter of 2025 was driven by “sports sponsorships, participation in large-scale festivals and collaborations with global IP”.
The company’s partnership with All Points East is described as key to shaping the brand’s global image, by targeting “trend-conscious Gen Z and Millennials”, said Jung-Ho.
“To globalise soju, we’ve made extensive efforts to position it as a unique category within the global spirits market,” Jung-Ho explained. “Today, soju is recognised not just as a Korean spirit, but as a distinct category in its own right.”
However, he warned that in some Southeast Asian markets where soju is already established, there are “local look-alike products”.
He continued: “While this poses a short-term challenge, we view it positively as evidence of the category’s global expansion. We will continue differentiating our brand to drive further growth.”
In February, Jinro started building its first overseas production plant in Vietnam.
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