Suntory may shift focus to Japan, Asian markets to counter U.S. tariffs
Suntory Holdings could shift its whiskeys to its home market and other Asian nations if U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs make them prohibitively expensive in the United States.
Trump on Wednesday imposed a 24% levy on Japanese imports as part of his rollout of the steepest American tariffs in a century.
"If prices of Hibiki and Yamazaki become up too high for U.S. consumers, we have an option of simply changing the target market,' Suntory President Nobuhiro Torii said in an interview. Demand is high elsewhere and the whiskeys sell well in Asia and Japan, said Torii, the great-grandson of Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii who took the helm late last month.
The company, which sells food, alcohol and soft drinks, generated about 18% of its ¥3.4 trillion ($23 billion) sales from the Americas last year, mostly from the U.S. It made 41% of total sales from alcohol in the period.
In anticipation of the tariffs, Suntory has already shipped European alcohols, used to make ready-to-drink beverages, and Mexican tequila to the U.S. "significantly ahead of schedule,' he said.
Torii anticipates the U.S. market will be complex, as companies will probably push to sell affordable American products, such as bourbons, instead of expensive foreign drinks such as Champagne and tequila.
"I have a feeling that things could change quite a bit with the tariff issue,' said Torii. "There are quite a few tricky parts.'
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