Suntory , the leading Japanese drinks company, was established by Shinjiro Torii (1879–1962), who had started in the wine and spirit business at his uncle Gisuke Konishi’s firm in Osaka, making yoshu, or imitation foreign-style spirits. See Japan. In 1899 he opened his own store, Torii Shoten, and began bottling his own brands including, in 1919, an imported Scotch blend he called Tory’s.
He started his production firm Kotobukiya in 1921 and three years later opened the Yamazaki distillery, Japan’s first dedicated whisky distillery, with master distiller Masataka Taketsuru, who had learned his trade in Scotland. See Taketsuru, Masataka. In 1929 a blend, Shirofuda (“white label”) appeared. Its lack of success resulted in Torii crafting whiskies that better suited Japanese sensibilities. In 1937, the Kakubin blend was launched. It remains Japan’s top-selling blend.
In 1952, Torii founded a chain of bars, called Tory’s, to tap into the growth of whisky drinking among the emerging Japanese salarymen.
His second son, Keizo Saji, renamed the firm Suntory in 1963 and embarked on a premiumization strategy, introducing brands such as Suntory Royal, Reserve, and Hibiki. The firm’s second distillery, Hakushu, opened in 1972 and was for a period the largest single malt distillery in the world. In 1984, Yamazaki became the first Japanese single malt brand. At the same time, Suntory had been steadily diversifying into beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee, health products, and horticulture—it created the world’s first blue rose. The firm also invested in Scotch whisky, buying Morrison Bowmore and a stake in Macallan. In 2014 it bought the American firm Jim Beam, becoming the world’s third largest distiller. The new firm was renamed BeamSuntory.
See also
Broom, Dave. The Way of Whisky: A Journey around Japanese Whisky. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2017.
By: Dave Broom