Japan’s Suntory aims for greater US canned cocktail market share, bets on spirits expertise

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Suntory Holdings is betting on its spirits expertise to boost its share in the U.S. canned cocktails market, said a senior official from the drinks giant that aims to become the global leader in the sector by 2030.

While Suntory is best known among overseas consumers for its whisky, a key growth market is the canned cocktail, or the ready-to-drink, segment. It believes its annual RTD revenue could double from current levels to about $3 billion by 2030.

Suntory is No. 2 in the global RTD segment, underpinned by its dominance in Japan, Euromonitor data shows. But it is behind global leader Mark Anthony Group, maker of White Claw alcoholic seltzers, partly because of a smaller share of the U.S. market where it is not even among the top five players.

“We believe right now in the U.S., spirits-based canned RTDs as well as spirits-based cocktails are an important platform for us to set the foundation for our growth,” said Kay Oh, Suntory’s Sydney-based senior general manager for RTDs.

Suntory’s Minus 196 with a 6% alcohol content, made from vodka or other spirits, proved a winner upon its debut in Australia in 2021 and has since broken into the U.S., British and German markets. This is far less potent than the company’s Strong Zero brand of fruity RTDs that have been big sellers in Japan for two decades and top out at an eye-watering 9% alcohol.

There is no immediate plan to tone down the 9% brew sold in Japan, Oh said, but the overall trend among consumers is for lower alcohol, lower sugar beverages.

“We understand and realize where consumer needs and trends are going. So the strength or that, if you will, hedonist impression is not what we stand for,” Oh said

“We are putting a lot of focus into USA.”

The global RTD market saw double-digit sales growth during the pandemic as health concerns prompted a switch from higher calorie drinks like beer, but that slowed to just 2% annual volume growth in 2023, according to industry watcher IWSR.

Suntory’s overseas expansion is an ambitious move and it will have to “navigate local tastes, intense competition, market positioning and NoLo (no and low) alcohol trends”, said Mac Salman, creator of Kanpai Planet, a YouTube channel on the Japanese drinks industry.

In the U.S., taxes tend to be higher for spirits-based RTDs, versus those made with malt liquor.

Still, Oh believes Suntory has a competitive advantage.

Malt beverage seltzers have less sugar and less calories, but somewhat “lax in taste”, she said. “The better version comes in spirits, which is higher quality, better taste, while still keeping the calorie and sugar count.”

($1 = 1.4756 Australian dollars)