Riding the Highball Wave... HiteJinro Beverage's Q1 Operating Profit Up 26% YoY (Comprehensive)

Jinro Tonic Water Leads Strong Performance with Sales of 12.8 Billion KRW

Hite Jinro Beverage announced on the 15th that its sales and operating profit in the first quarter of this year increased by 26% each compared to the same period last year.

Although the company did not disclose the specific amounts of sales and operating profit for the first quarter, it explained that the sales of Jinro Tonic Water in the first quarter reached 12.8 billion KRW, a 136% increase compared to the same period last year, driving the improvement in performance. The company analyzed that the increase in Jinro Tonic Water sales was due to the popularity of highballs made by mixing whiskey and tonic water, as well as 'Sotonic' (Soju + tonic water).

Launched in 1976, Jinro Tonic Water is a representative mixer brand that has led the growth of the domestic tonic water market for 47 years. It has long been favored as a cocktail mixer used in 'Jintonic' cocktails mainly among enthusiasts, and has shown remarkable growth over the past six years. Sales in the first quarter of this year increased more than tenfold compared to the first quarter of 2017 (1.2 billion KRW).

Hite Jinro Beverage plans to expand new items led by the Jinro Tonic Water Original and the zero-calorie series including ‘Jinro Tonic Zero’, ‘Jinro Tonic Black Tea’, and ‘Jinro Tonic Ginger Ale’, establishing its position as a ‘Korean-style mixer product’. In addition, the company intends to actively target not only the home-use channel but also 500,000 restaurants and bars nationwide that sell soju, leading a ‘healthy drinking culture’.

A representative of Hite Jinro Beverage said, "We will continue to achieve both quantitative and qualitative growth through strengthening marketing power for our main products and actively launching new products."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.