Constructing networks with global partners and conducting joint operation with notable overseas distilleries and wineries have enabled Suntory to market and distribute some of the world's best-known premium brands.

MIDORI, Japan's most popular liqueur, has been developed as a global brand.

In Scotland, for example, we operate Morrison Bowmore Distillers, whose BOWMORE single malt whisky has won the highest awards in international spirits competitions. We also participate in the operation of Louis Royer, one of France's most prestigious cognac distilleries, and engage actively in sales of the Louis Royer brand, primarily in China. MIDORI, Japan's most famous liqueur, has been developed as a global brand and is expanding its international sales in the Americas, Australasia, Europe and Asia. We also conduct joint operation of Lejay Lagoute, a well-known cassis liqueur producer in France, and Mozart Distillerie, a prestigious chocolate liqueur producer in Austria.

Suntory initiated the beer business in China with the establishment in 1984 of China Jiangsu Suntory Foods Co., Ltd., the first joint beer brewery involving foreign capital in China, in the city of Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province.

A production line at the Shanghai Brewery, which won the China Brewing Association's "Excellent Enterprise Award" for its thorough quality control

Building on achievements made possible by our know-how of Chinese business acquired through this beer business in Jiangsu Province, we went on to enter the remarkably fast-growing beer business in Shanghai. We established Shanghai Suntory Brewing Co., Ltd. (later renamed as the current Suntory Brewing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.) in 1995 and launched Suntory Beer Qing Shuang and Suntory Beer Chao Shuang in 1996. Through such efforts as conducting bold advertising campaigns employing airships and TV commercials, offering "refreshing" beer matched to the taste of the people of Shanghai and implementing unique sales activities and distribution policies, we boosted the performance of Suntory beer rapidly to capture the largest market share in Shanghai in 1999.
We have continued to promote our business energetically since — becoming the first company to conduct production and sales of draft beer in the Shanghai area, for example, and acquiring Shanghai Foster's Brewery Co., Ltd. We are currently building up sales in Suzhou and Wuxi, moreover, the other principal cities in the Shanghai vicinity, and we look forward to continuing our pursuit of dynamic business development with regional roots in the growing Chinese market.

Key visual for YAMAZAKI, which is establishing a firm foothold in the Chinese market

An "On-the-Rocks" campaign featuring round ice conducted in hotel bars

The Chinese consumer market continues to expand increasingly quickly in an environment of rapid economic development. The whisky market as a whole has grown at an average annual rate of around 20% over the past five years in China, boosted by such factors as tariff reductions accompanying China's admission to membership in the World Trade Organization and aggressive advertising by competing whisky makers.
Suntory Liquor Business, which entered this growing market in 2004 with such premium whiskies as YAMAZAKI, HIBIKI and ROYAL, has recorded considerable success in expanding its Chinese operations centered in Shanghai. We established branches in Beijing, Shenzhen and Dalian in October 2007, moreover, and we are continuing to pursue further expansion of our business sphere. Efforts to cultivate the fast-growing market among affluent Chinese in addition to China's Japanese expat market are now in full swing, and we have initiated activities aimed at creating a YAMAZAKI oriental whisky culture among Chinese consumers.
The future will see us continue our energetic efforts to develop Suntory as one of the top-three liquor brands in China.