Unit: million USD

In 1968, JINRO soju was first exported to Vietnam. Since its foray into the region, JINRO soju has achieved great success by targeting mostly female consumers interested in Korean culture and cuisine. To increase its local presence, JINRO even opened up a BBQ franchise, JINRO BBQ, to boost its brand awareness and attract local consumers by introducing fun ‘soju drinking culture’.

In 1977, JINRO soju was exported to Japan, where it became the best-selling soju between 1996 and 2004. After a short stagnant period, JINRO soju experienced a strong rebound in 2020 as its fruit-flavored sojus became a huge hit among local consumers. In October 2020, the Chamisul brand landed a TV advertisement for the first time in Japan.

In Cambodia, HITEJINRO promoted its brand by wrapping a Rolls Royce with JINRO product images to attract local MZ consumers as well as hosting the JINRO 360 EDM Festival to commemorate the country’s biggest holiday, Chaul Chnam. HITEJINRO also made efforts to enhance accessibility for local consumers by partnering with local supermarkets, outlets and convenience stores. For example in Indonesia, HITEJINRO inked a deal with a major outlet Bottle Avenue & Vineyard to sell JINRO soju.

In Thailand, HITEJINRO achieved strong growth via marketing activities that focused on providing hands-on experiences for consumers. In December 2020, the Korean soju maker began to host a soju tasting event, 'JINRO Day', across Bangkok's major restaurants to increase its point of contact with local consumers. Also, JINRO soju made its way to Thailand's large supermarket chains such as BigC and Makro as well as the biggest convenience store, 7-Eleven, to enhance accessibility for the customers.

HITEJINRO’s fruit-flavored soju became a powerful driving force behind the company’s growth abroad, experiencing roaring success even in Russia -- the country of vodka. The fruit-flavored sojus became favorites among Russian MZers given the variety of fruit flavors and lower alcohol content compared to regular soju. HITEJINRO targeted the MZ generation in Russia by making good use of influencers such as YouTube streamers, food bloggers and bartenders to promote soju on social media networks.

This year, HITEJINRO’s soju exports to China topped 1 million boxes, which translates into around 30 million soju bottles. This is the second time that the annual exports of soju to a single region have surpassed 1 million boxes since exporting to Japan in 1994. Based on the current sales trend, China may even become HITEJINRO’s largest single importer by the year-end. The fruit-flavored soju hype has also gone viral in China with cocktail recipes such as mixing other beverages or fruits with JINRO’s fruit-flavored soju becoming huge hits among local millennials and Gen Zers who increasingly prefer fun and flavorful alcohol over hard liquor.

HITEJINRO’s push to globalize soju has been rewarded with strong export growth. Its fruit-flavored soju exports to China, Russia and Singapore logged an annual average triple-digit growth rate between 2017 and 2020. Also in the first half of 2021, exports of JINRO soju to Thailand surged over threefold compared to 2020 alongside increased sales of soju in Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Indonesia. Through HITEJINRO's globalization efforts which include broadening its target customers from Korean residents living abroad to local residents, JINRO soju has emerged as a global drink enjoyed by a worldwide audience, representing K-soju as one of the mainstays of the Korean wave, or popularity of Korean culture.