'Slump Swamp' Kooksoondang's Rebound Card... Baekseju Renovation Followed by Price Increase

Baekseju Rebranding with September Packaging and Label Updates
9% Price Increase Aligned with Renovation... 500 Won Increase at Convenience Stores
Measures to Revive Sluggish Yakju Category

Kooksoondang is undertaking a major revamp of its 'Baekseju' product. Baekseju, launched in 1992, is Kooksoondang's flagship yakju (medicinal rice wine) product and, along with the takju (unfiltered rice wine) 'Kooksoondang Saeng Makgeolli,' has driven the company's sales. However, due to sluggish sales in recent years, Baekseju has not been able to fully play its role as a key product, making product improvement unavoidable. It is interpreted that Kooksoondang aims to create a turning point for performance recovery through the revamp of Baekseju, as the popularity of traditional liquors has declined after the endemic phase.

According to the liquor industry on the 28th, Kooksoondang will relaunch its flagship yakju product Baekseju next month. Through this revamp, the first in four years since 2020, Baekseju will emit its distinctive aroma more subtly, and the balance of sweetness and acidity will be adjusted so that neither stands out excessively. In terms of appearance, the brown color of traditional Korean jars will be introduced to the bottle to express the tradition and value of Korean liquor. However, the alcohol content will remain at 13%.

In line with this rebranding, Kooksoondang will raise the wholesale price of Baekseju by 9% starting from the 1st of next month. Accordingly, the price of a 375ml bottle of Baekseju will increase by 500 KRW from the previous 4,600 KRW to 5,100 KRW at convenience stores. This is the first price increase in two years, following a roughly 10% price hike in June 2022.

Kooksoondang's Baekseju rebranding and wholesale price increase are seen as measures to improve overall product quality, including the liquor's characteristics, to enhance business performance. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system (DART), Kooksoondang's sales in the first half of this year were 35 billion KRW, a 1.3% decrease from 35.4 billion KRW in the same period last year. The decline in operating profit is even more significant. Operating profit for the first half was 1.3 billion KRW, down 60.9% from 3.4 billion KRW a year earlier, and a 78.7% decrease compared to 6.1 billion KRW two years ago. The upward trend that continued after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 began to falter last year, with sluggishness continuing into this year.

In particular, the decline in the yakju category, represented by Baekseju, is deepening. Kooksoondang's yakju sales for the first half have rapidly decreased from 8.7 billion KRW in 2022 to 7.1 billion KRW last year and 6.3 billion KRW this year. Both domestic sales and exports have declined, reducing the share of yakju in total sales from 22.8% in 2022 to 18.1% this year, making the revamp inevitable.

On the other hand, the takju 'Kooksoondang Saeng Makgeolli,' which leads Kooksoondang alongside Baekseju, is performing relatively well both domestically and internationally. In the first half of this year, Kooksoondang's takju sales reached 16.7 billion KRW, a 10.6% increase from 15.1 billion KRW two years ago, and the share of takju sales rose from 39.6% to 47.7% during this period. Notably, Kooksoondang Rice Makgeolli's sales exceeded 12 million bottles from July last year to June this year, surpassing an average monthly sales volume of 1 million bottles for the first time.

In fact, Kooksoondang attributes the strong sales of Kooksoondang Rice Makgeolli to the revamp conducted in 2021. The quality was improved to enhance the product's flavor, and switching to environmentally friendly transparent PET bottles proved effective. Kooksoondang plans to achieve similar results with Baekseju through liquor quality improvement and bottle replacement.

Meanwhile, Kooksoondang is actively expanding its business scope beyond traditional liquors by including imported beverages such as wine and tequila to respond to the market. After acquiring Haitai & Company (formerly Haitai Industry), Kooksoondang's wine business accounted for about 14.4% of total sales in the first half of this year. Earlier this year, Kooksoondang also officially launched '818 Tequila,' a brand introduced by the global model Kendall Jenner, further expanding its sales reach.

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