Suntory to double Beam sales on Bourbon growth

Suntory intends to double Beam’s spirits sales to US$10 billion in the next five years, as it capitalises on the projected growth of Bourbon and American whiskey.

Suntory is basing its projected company growth on the back of anticipated continued demand for Bourbon over the next five years

The Japanese drinks group, which bought Beam in 2014 for US$16bn, has ambitious plans to almost double its overall revenue to 4 trillion yen (US$34bn) by 2020.

Suntory president Takeshi Niinami told Reuters the majority of that growth could be made off the back of projected demand for Bourbon and other brown spirits.

Global sales of Bourbon are predicted to soar by 19.3% to 45 million cases in the next five years, according to the IWSR – the fastest rate of growth expected from any spirit category.

Beam recorded double-digit growth of its leading whiskey brands, Jim Beam (10%) and Maker’s Mark (15%) in its 2012/13 full-year financial results.

Following the takeover by Suntory, Beam CMO Kevin George told The Spirits Business that the American spirits group would always be “first and foremost a Bourbon company”, despite Suntory’s large footprint in Japanese whisky.

Despite such a focus on Bourbon and its anticipated growth, Niinami did not rule out the possibility of further acquisitions along the way.

“I am not ruling out acquisitions as possibility. There could be small ones along the way,” he said. “But we can exceed 4 trillion yen without an acquisition of Beam’s scale, one that would be worth hundreds of billions of yen.”

Niinami was appointed president on 1 October 2014, marking the first time the role has been given to someone from outside the group’s founding family.