Ki No Bi: ultra-premium gin can be growth driver
While acknowledging the current economic and geopolitical climate is not easy to navigate, Adrien Timpano, head of global marketing for Ki No Bi, notes the ultra-premium end of the gin category is still growing.
Ki No Bi is made by The Kyoto Distillery in the eponymous city in Japan. The distillery was established in 2014 by Noriko Kakuda Croll, David Croll and Marcin Miller.
In 2020, the distillery benefitted from a ‘significant’ investment from French firm Pernod Ricard.
Speaking to The Spirits Business about the current state of the gin category, Timpano said: “The situation currently is clearly not easy for everyone – not just gin and not just Pernod Ricard, all the spirits companies have experienced that this year; it’s really not easy.
“But we noticed that, especially at the upper end, the ultra-premium gin segment is still growing. I believe we have expected value growth at 3% between 2023 and 2029, so the past few years have still been growing for ultra-premium – including Ki No Bi – and we believe it’s going to continue that way.”
He continues to add “it’s not easy to be transparent”.
“We were hoping for stronger growth,” he admits, “when we look back a few years and when we compare to some other brands and competitors. But we’re one of the few that can see that we have kept growing so far.”
Timpano says “Japanese gin has been a bit delayed, and also gin in Japan” when compared with the boom seen particularly in parts of Europe, such as the UK and Spain.
For Japanese gin, he believes the appeal is more closely tied to the craftsmanship that goes into creating the product – and this is where Ki No Bi can play to its strengths.
“Japanese gin does bring some newness, some freshness to the category in terms of ingredients that we can show the world, and our stories about craftsmanship,” he adds. “Whereas, I feel the force for European gin or Western gin was more about the overall enjoyment of the drink itself. Here, we can show more stories with Japanese gin.
“Overall, Japanese culture is quite trendy these days, from other spirits such as whisky and shochu, or sake, all the way to matcha, which is in a huge boom globally now. Japanese green tea production is not enough to supply global demand, and food is also popular. The number of Japanese restaurants globally has, I believe, more than tripled in the last decade.
“Everything about that helped, I believe, Japanese gin to be in the right place to grow because now consumers are familiar with flavours like Japanese green tea, which we use in our botanicals. They’re familiar with some ingredients you find in Japanese food, such as yuzu, ginger or shiso that we use in our botanicals. So, it’s much easier to tell the story and it puts it in the right place to build on that base.”
Japan still remains the number one market for Ki No Bi, and there are big plans for its homeland. Last June, the distillery revealed it would be investing €25 million (US$29m) in building a new carbon-neutral distillery with increased capacity.
Interestingly, Italy is Ki No Bi’s second biggest market.
“Italy is a really great gin-consumer market because they consume from premium all the way to ultra-premium brands,” Tampino says. “And they have the aperitivo culture. They have the Negroni culture.
“If you also go beyond the spirits industry, there are some similarities in the way Italian consumers approach culture, art, design, gastronomy, with Japanese people. There is a really strong affinity between the two countries, and that may explain the success we’ve experienced with Ki No Bi.”
The US remains a land of opportunity, as do China and India, “where we believe there is a lot of room to grow”, Tampino notes.
Taiwan, though not huge volume numbers for Ki No Bi, is also a market where the gin brand has “pretty strong market share”, he adds.
On-trade key to success
“There are so many markets that are discovering gin now, especially in Asia. Globally, I believe gin, and super- to ultra-premium gin, is going to continue growing.”
This pursuit of growth will be “100% on-trade”, Tampino says, describing the channel as the ideal place to tell Ki No Bi’s story and share the craftsmanship of the brand.
New product development has been key to Ki No Bi’s story so far, with its portfolio comprising the likes of Ki No Bi Gin, Ki No Tea, and Ki No Bi Sei (the navy strength expression).
“We believe we have a solid portfolio that can cover most needs,” Tampino says. “We even have our own version of sloe gin with Ki No Bai. It’s a very large range for a young brand.
“We want to focus on our core meaning and the flagship Kyoto gin. This is what we want to push forward in most of our markets, especially the more emerging markets.
“There is something about gin that makes it so exciting to discover because you can play with so many different botanicals and the country of origin in a way that today’s consumers are really excited to discover. I believe it’s still going to be a solid, solid category.”
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