South Korea’s top retailers jump to wine and whisky markets

Lotte and Shinsegae have expressed plans to set up whisky breweries.

South Korea’s top two retailers—Shinsegae Group and Lotte Group—are going beyond retail to jump into the fast-growing whisky and wine markets in the country, Korea Bizwire reported.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage announced in a report released early this year that it will expand its production of whisky, recruiting employees and signing contracts with whisky experts from Scotland to set up a whisky brewery.

The company reportedly plans to build a brewery on one of the parcels of land that it currently owns. Construction is expected to begin next year at the earliest.

For its part, Shinsegae L&B has expressed plans to put a start to the whisky business as it is now recruiting experienced employees, with a goal of setting up breweries of its own.

Both companies are expected to compete in the wine market as well. Shinsegae Group purchased $243m (KRW299.6b) of real estate in relation to the Shafer Vineyard in the US last February. Its subsidiary, Shinsegae L&B, plans to expand its number of wine stores and introduce a new series of wines.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage also continued to broaden its presence in the wine market by importing and selling a wider variety of wines, generating $67.69m (KRW83.2b) in wine sales last year, up by 34.4%from the previous year.