By Shane T Williams
The ILG family has gathered in Seoul for the 2024 South Korean study tour, with around 100 delegates from retail to pub groups in attendance.
Suppliers are also taking part in eight-day study tour, which is split across the megacity of Seoul and the southern beachside port and trading hub of Busan.
The study tour business sessions kicked off on Friday last week with ILG CEO Paul Esposito taking attendees through an overall update on the ILG business, before Trading Manager Tony Oliverio shared a marketing update.
Three supplier panels gave delegates a ‘health check’ on the beer, wine and spirits categories. The beer panel highlighted that while craft beer is down and contemporary beer is up, cans are right on-trend, with 10- and 30-packs hitting the mark.
On the spirits front, brands with higher ABV are up, lower sugar is still on trend, Tequila is still hot (driven by Blanco) and flavoured Whisk(e)y is still growing. Light RTD is up, and the cost-of-living pressures have seen an increase in smaller format FSBS.
In terms of wine, the panel said red wine is down, cask purchases are up, Prosecco is still in growth and consumers are looking for value. Australian sparkling under $20 may be a sweet spot where there can be some innovation and growth.
National Liquor News and The Shout are reporting from the conference. For a full category report and ILG 2024 update, keep your eye out for the print and digital October issue of National Liquor News.