Beyond “Quality Growth”. Suntory Global Spirits GM Global Travel Retail, Alasdair Dickinson, On Pricing, Margins and Activations. And How Far Suntory Will Push To Keep Its Brands Ahead.
24 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
Alasdair Dickinson has never been one for empty rhetoric, and 2026 is not a year that rewards it. Suntory Global Spirits finds itself navigating a spirits landscape that has shifted gear: post-pandemic exuberance has cooled, value and margin are under sharper scrutiny, and travellers are thinking harder about when – and why – they should trade up.
At the same time, Asia Pacific remains the industry’s favourite “engine room” – even as performance diverges sharply by market, channel and passenger profile.
Against that backdrop, Suntory Global Spirits continues to talk about “quality growth”, about investing in travel retail and about backing Japanese Whisky, American whiskey and a wider portfolio with heavyweight campaigns and partnerships.
The real test now is how those ambitions translate into hard numbers, investment choices and day-to-day negotiations with airports and retailers, who themselves are under pressure.
In the following all-embracing interview held at TFWA Singapore, I asked Alasdair to cut through the noise – to assess where the global spirits business really stands – what’s different and what isn’t – in the Asia Pacific region. Also, how 2026 has fared so far for Suntory in travel retail and just how far the company is prepared to go – on pricing, margins and activations – to keep its brands ahead of the game.
Peter Marshall (PM): Alasdair, good to see you again, and welcome back to TRunblocked.com.
Alasdair Dickinson (AD): A pleasure.
PM: So let’s get straight into our conversation. If we strip away the buzzwords, how would you really characterize the global spirits environment as we move through 2026? And what has fundamentally changed post-correction and what, if anything, still feels like business as usual?
AD: I think one thing for me would be the focus on Gen Z. There’s been, I’d say, a ramped-up focus on Gen Z from what I’ve seen over the past 18 months. And I would also say there’s been a greater conversation around experience within the travel retail environment.
There’s been a polarisation – we’re moving away from this high volume driving, high promotions. There’s definitely promotional fatigue within the industry and I think that the cohorts that are travelling through, they’re looking for experience. And when I say experience, I don’t mean putting a travel retail exclusive label on the bottle. That for me is not a true experience.
Everything else, apart from the geopolitical challenges that we’re seeing, which are obviously quite unpredictable, is business as usual, so difficult to predict through to the end of the year.
You’ve met and interviewed Ashish Sagar, he’s done an amazing job. And the message is absolutely, fundamentally, that our strategy does not change. We’re a brand building organisation. We look at executional excellence. We’re here for certain shopper demographics and certain strategic airports. So I would say, if you remove the geopolitical situation, and you look at the impact of Gen Z, I would say they are the main things that are changing. But fundamentally, as Suntory, that does not change our strategy. It stays the same.
PM: Your business is doing well. Too many are talking down the market, but that really more applies to domestic rather than travel retail. Travel retail is its own entity. And you outperformed the travel retail market by a considerable distance last year. I don’t reasonably expect that’s going to stop – especially with the fact that you are continuing to invest in this channel. Your portfolio is quite remarkable too, which helps.
AD: Yes, and that’s the big thing about Suntory. The onus is always on liquid quality. When I think of Suntory, we don’t talk in three months, six months, nine months. We’re an organization that talks in decades. If I think of some of my Suntory cohorts, they joined out of college and they’ve been there for 30, 40 years. They’re what we call Suntorians. It’s in their blood, you know.
I think Covid gave us a lot of learnings and I think we’re learning how to pivot quite quickly now. But for us, again, our strategy doesn’t change. Our strategy is high quality, liquid brand building at scale, looking at the right demographics, investing in the right way. Also the big one for me, which I think I’ll probably over-elaborate on today, is executional excellence – because I think that’s somewhere that we can really improve within travel retail.
PM: Now you’ve been talking about “quality growth” for a while. In practical terms, what have you done differently from your competitors in the last couple of years that now gives you confidence that you can still grow value, not just chase volume.
AD: So I think there are two things. We continue to innovate in the right way. So when we look at our innovation platform, let me use something like Hibiki 12 as an example. This was a product that was discontinued from domestic, actually discontinued from all of Suntory for a number of years. And we brought it back to be a travel retail exclusive. There is a continued focus from the organization within travel retail.
Another thing that actually has changed for us quite dramatically is this: we’re starting to invest quite heavily in shop-in shops so that we can be more experiential So what has changed for us slightly is that, instead of looking at small scale activations, instead of looking at the small wins, we’re looking to build longer term retail landscapes that will set us up for the future.
And our focus has been on value. We are not getting caught into the minus 50%, minus 60% drop and we’ve been quite consistent in that.
PM: I think that has been an act of desperation from other players. Retailers love it, but I don’t think it helps the industry as a whole at all.
AD: I don’t think we’ve got the portfolio that’s set up for that either, Peter. We are all about experience and engagement.
If I look at most of our portfolio – and I’m not going to use the word premiumization here because it’s overused in my view – it’s relatively premium. So to start discounting things like Hibiki, well, we’re not going to play in that game. It’s definitely not the route we’re going to go down.
So I think where we’ve differentiated ourselves by really focusing on being more experience-led. We’ve actually employed a whole new retail excellence management team which is dedicated to going to key airports to actually make sure that our merchandising, in-store messaging, our pricing, our stock availability, is right. We’ve invested heavily in people.
PM: That’s a direct on- cost, isn’t it?
AD: Yes, and that’s a cost and headcount that we’ve put into our organization. They work very closely with our retail partners to make sure that every time a shopper goes into a travel retail store they get an incredible experience with Suntory.
Are we there yet? The function has been set up for, maybe,18 months and we’re still learning. But I’d say that’s been a big game changer for us as well.
PM: Okay, now in a more cost conscious environment, just how hard are you being pushed on price margin in travel retail right now? Where are you simply not prepared to go – even if it means walking away from some opportunities? Where are your red lines?
AD: To be honest, I don’t feel too much pressure on margin. We don’t feel as if we’re being pressured too heavily. I think the retailers understand the role that Suntory plays for them. I think that if I use Japanese whiskey, for example – it’s growing at seven times the category,where average transaction values are much higher than most other categories.
So when we look at the actual average transaction value that we’re bringing to these retailers, I think there’s less pressure on them to come to us to look for this extra margin. When it comes to our red lines, we do have red lines, and it’s all about return on investment. Does it make sense for us to invest in these places? I’ll go back to the Trinity model – it has to work for all three partners.
ROI is a big one for us. We have to be cost conscious, especially in a year like this year. But Suntory has always said that we will commit to investment in the right places as long as the ROI is right, as long as the shopper experience is right. That’s a big one for us as well. We are not going to invest in vanity projects that do not do anything for the shopper. That for us is huge. We won’t build a huge, fancy boutique just because we want to have a huge fancy boutique and we want a name above the door.
And there are also other opportunities outside of airports I would say as well. You know, we started to see some green shoots of recovery in the cruise business – an area that actually we were quite underplayed in. So I would say that, over the past few years, we’ve really started to ramp up. We now have a new cruise team that works out of the Americas.
But there are other channels out there as well that we’re willing to invest in – if the ROI is right, if the experience is right. Again, if our investment doesn’t do something for the shopper, that is more the red line for us than anything else.
PM: Now, Asia Pacific is often described as the growth engine, but it is not one homogenous market, is it? Which specific countries and traveller groups are genuinely driving your momentum today? And where are you seeing a reality check or a slowdown?
AD: We see a lot of growth coming from Indian passengers, not just in India, but with the India Diaspora that are travelling around APAC. So that’s been a big one for us.
Chinese passengers have been doing a lot of in-China travel, but they are returning and remain very important – we’re seeing strong green shoots again. But maybe a slight slowdown is the spending power that comes out.
I think I’m probably not the only one to say that Vietnamese shoppers are increasing and we’re seeing some opportunity coming through there, too. And I’d also say that we’re seeing some success in Korea as well. Of course, it goes without saying that we’re seeing challenges in the Middle East.
But actually, from a shopper perspective, I think we cover most bases, to be honest, because our portfolio is so large. We’re not dependent on one cohort and I think that’s really, really important for Suntory. We are not one brand, we are not one company that if one set of nationalities starts to drop off or one set of nationalities starts to move away, that we’ll struggle.
PM: You’re not one dimensional, that’s for sure.
AD: That’s for sure.
PM: So when you look at passenger behaviour in Asia Pacific – whether it’s the route mix, dwell time, their willingness to stay in stores and trade up – what dynamics are out there at the moment that are forcing you to rethink how and where you deploy your brands in the region?
AD: Gen Z, huge one for us. How do we engage? Gen Z would be a big one. So, we’re looking closely at omnichannel, looking at F and B, looking at lounges, looking at the full funnel from the moment the person leaves the house until they reach the store.
PM: Looking at cocktail bars too, because that’s also a big lever, isn’t it, into discovering the brand.
AD: Absolutely. And we’re open to look at F and B opportunities across GTR, which is something where we’ve never really dipped our toe in the water before. But it’s something that we would definitely be interested in. If I’m not mistaken, we did a takeover in one of the lounges in Changi and it was incredibly successful and it was giving the right passenger access to our product.
And then, when you can tie that up with different promotions, it becomes more value driven. To your point on changing how we deploy our brands in the region, I don’t think it really changes. It’s the strategies that we use behind our brands. So certain brands won’t work when it comes to F and B opportunities and certain brands will. So it’s a bit of a mixture of both.
Another thing that I would like to touch on a little is price polarisation, which we’re seeing. So when we look at the passenger behaviour, we’re definitely seeing price polarisation. We’re seeing the same as you pointed out in spirits – that the high end is generally doing well and volume is doing well, with the middle getting a little squeezed. So when we look at our innovation pipeline, we’re looking to try and capture some of those price points as well. A good example here is that we’re going to launch Teacher’s Single Malt at some point this year and that will close that gap in terms of that price polarisation.
PM: So looking slightly broader now. Is there anything about the spirits industry that is still collectively getting wrong about the Asia Pacific traveller? I mean, are there any urban myths out there that no longer apply and that are actually driving the wrong kind of products, prices and activations in the channel?
AD: I would probably expand my answer outside of APAC, if you don’t mind Peter. I think that, for me, there was a pretendency to think that if you got your product on shelf and if it had ‘travel retail exclusive’ on it, it would sell and that was job done.
And that’s where our retail execution team comes in really strongly now. So for us, right now, it’s about messaging – giving the shopper a real reason to buy, looking at real heritage and real reasons for our product to come off the shelf, rather than assuming that as soon as you get it on the shelf your depletions are going to be sky high.
I think that’s something that we definitely had to look at. I can’t think of any urban myths specifically from an Asia specific perspective. One thing that does spring to mind, though, is that I think brand ambassador engagement is incredibly important. I think that merging brand ambassador engagement with the right shopper messaging in store – that’s really, really critical. We have no time to be lazy. We have no time to expect that if we get our product on shelf it’s going to sell automatically. Having a product on the shelf is no longer enough.
It’s all about education. We need to engage these new shoppers. We need to make them fall in love with our brands with a narrative that’s viable in terms of what they can buy into.
PM: I just want to pick up on a point we mentioned earlier about exclusives. I worry about the industry having too many and believe that this may dilute their perceived value. I think it’s actually on the retailers more here – they have to be more selective about who they run with because, if there is a glut of TREX, that’s going to damage them from appearing special and different for travel retail. Thoughts?
AD: I think there has to be a reason for it to be a travel retail exclusive. Having the same liquid as domestic and just putting a label on it doesn’t matter. I think it comes down to things like personalisation. So that’s where I think travel retail exclusives can really make and play a difference.
We’re sitting in the Hibiki room just now for this interview at TFWA Singapore. But if I was to take you to the Maker’s Mark room, I can show you a bottle where we’re actually personalising a specific location, a specific touchpoint. Touching buyers more with locality – I think that’s important.
I think if you oversaturate travel retail exclusives, you’re right, it might well lose credibility. There has to be a reason for it to be a travel retail exclusive. And for me that reason can’t be price, either. That reason has to be driven by value. It has to be driven by relevance to the local market. It has to be driven by personalisation. We need to give the retailer a real reason to buy these travel retail exclusives. Because there’s a little bit of me that thinks: how much does an everyday shopper really understand what a travel retail exclusive means? And I’ll bring that back to the education question later as well. We need to educate customers what exclusive genuinely means in terms of travel retail..
PM: Well, let’s move from pricing to performance. Can you let us know how Suntory Global Spirits has performed in GTR over the first four months of 2026? And where are you ahead of your own plan, where have the signals been a little more muted than you’d like?
AD: Our performance has been very strong – in spite of the softness in the market, especially in the Middle East. But that fact hasn’t stopped our support.As I said, we’re in this for the long term and we continue to support our Middle East partners. For example, we launched Hibiki 12 exclusively very recently in Dubai, and that was a big decision for us to make.
You know, we’re all in the middle of a conflict. Passenger numbers are down in the Middle East, but Suntory is not the kind of organization that’s going to pull back on its commitments.This is probably the single biggest launch we’re going to have this year.
PM: That’s pretty ballsy, to do that. It’s not without risk, but it’s great that you did it. I hope you’ve received some help from the retailer.
AD: We are.They’ve been very supportive and early results have been really positive. Most of our markets are performing very well.. But, yes, I say that the only thing that would be holding us back from having another absolutely stellar year would be the uncertainty around some of the geopolitical situations that are happening. But the first four months have been incredibly positive.
PM: Well, I’ll pick this up with Ashish, I’m sure, in Cannes. We’re another four months away from that to see just how the picture changes.
AD: The only thing I would add as well is that we pride ourselves on being quite agile, Peter. So what I would say is that we’re not resting on our laurels. We’re not saying: okay, we’ve got a challenge somewhere in the market, so we’re going to be behind budget, we’re not going to make our numbers. That’s not how Suntory works. We’re looking at opportunities across all of our markets, and there’s lots to go for. There are airports, of course. I mentioned cruise. We don’t play that strongly in airlines either, so that’s another opportunity for us that we could potentially look at.
PM: That’s good to hear. So, although it’s still relatively early in 2026, where have you seen the biggest divergence? Whether it’s between Japanese whiskey, American whiskey and your gin and vodka franchises, for example. And what does that tell you about what the traveling consumer actually wants right now? You know, Gen Z, they’re pretty picky, and they’re consistently inconsistent in terms of their taste preferences right now. Whether that means they’re agile or whether they’re just fickle, I don’t quite know. But the point is that it’s a fluid market (pun intended). And you’ve got baby boomers on the other side, who have the disposable income but are arguably being overlooked. Do you think we still appear to want to keep a mindset that the market is as it was 5 years ago. It has really shifted dramatically, hasn’t it?
AD: Yes it has.
PM: So which individual sectors have surprised you in terms of consumer preferences?
AD: In terms of consumer preferences, Japanese whisky has been a growth engine for us. There’s no doubt about that. I constantly get asked the question: when’s Japanese whisky going to slow down? And my answer is the same: we don’t see it happening.
PM: Can you supply enough of it to meet demand?
AD: No, not at the moment, not globally. In some skus we can, what we call first generation and second generation. So for a product like Toki, we can meet demand.. When it comes to our age statements, that’s where we’re going to find the challenge.
PM: Does scarcity of product mean a price hike?
AD: We’re actually quite conservative when it comes to pricing. I think we could probably charge more for our products, but we’re actually relatively conservative. So Japanese whisky has been a growth engine for us. I think the conundrum which we’re working very closely on, and we have a very diligent internal work team behind it, is Scotch at the moment. It’s challenging, that’s the one area that’s giving us a little bit of a headache.
So what we’ve done now is that we’ve created clearly defined roles for what we want each of our Scotches to play. Because, speaking quite openly, Bowmore and Laphroaig used to kind of play in the same space and they’re not – they are completely different liquids. They have completely different heritages, completely different stories.
And, as I mentioned, we’ve got a new Teacher’s Single Malt coming out. So, to answer your question, I think Japanese whisky hasn’t surprised me – it’s a continued growth engine. American whiskey is performing relatively well, especially within Europe. Our gin performance is great. If I think of Singapore, with Roku we’re now the number one selling gin in Singapore. We’re trending ahead of the category in gin. We also saw great growth in gin last year, and Roku is now a top 10 gin within travel retail.
And, just to go back, we launched Roku maybe five years ago. It had one SKU here at Changi Singapore Airport and we became the number one selling gin there. That shows the power of the liquid and the quality. So, for gin, we’ve not had too much of a challenge there.
As to.Vodka, we don’t play big in that sector, so it’s not really a priority market for us. But I would say that Scotch is the one that we need to figure out. Importantly, we do have some strong plans behind Scotch. We’ve got the new Bowmore range coming through, for example.
PM: When’s that fully coming through?
AD: It was actually launched last year, as you know, but we’ve also got some nice Bowmore vintages that are coming through. One that’s embargoed I can’t share yet, unfortunately.
PM: So that’s for Cannes.
AD: Yes. But I’d say that Scotch is the one that we need to double down on. I also see Scotch as the one with the biggest opportunity, because when I look at our Scotch portfolio, it’s incredibly powerful. But I think the whole Scotch industry at the moment is figuring itself out. We’re seeing some quite deep discounts across the sector.
PM: The category needs to reimagine and reposition itself. You know, I’m talking here about the fireside and slippers brigade. There are many brands and businesses that are still cocooning themselves in so many respects. They genuinely need better, smarter marketing. A fair comment?
AD: Yes. I think it is, and I think it’s all about the storytelling as well. And I know I’ve mentioned this already, we use our retail excellence team, we have a Brand Ambassador Excellence Centre, and that’s really focused on storytelling.
Because Scotch is all about storytelling. It’s an incredibly complex category, as you know. As a shopper trying to navigate single malt, trying to even navigate the blended section can be a real headache.
PM: It’s all too cluttered a category – there’s simply too much out there. I know a number of retailers are now looking at that specifically, especially given the current percentage drop in volume from shelves. I mean, there are brands just sitting, not moving, and haven’t done so for months. Retailers are sitting on Scotch stockpiles they cannot move. They’re not making new purchases. And that’s half the problem. In fact it is the problem. So I know it’s been a wake up call, the Scotch engine moves too slow and only those that pivot quickly will make it through this difficult period. The middle-priced brands, as we identified earlier, are the ones most affected and are the ones that need the most help. But they need to help themselves to stay in the game by thinking and marketing differently.
AD: Yes.
PM: So, moving on, when retailers ask for more value from your brands, what does that actually translate to in the negotiation room and how often does that align with, rather than undermine, the long term equity you’re trying to build?
AD: Actually, when we have our conversations with the retailers, and I’ve noticed this more and more this week, our values are actually quite aligned. I think they understand what Suntory brings to the table.
Some specific conversations that we’ve had with retailers this week are about penetration. How do we bring more penetration? How do we bring more excitement, how do we bring more and better activations? And how can we integrate AI? This is something that I think everyone’s still trying to figure out in travel retail. How do we better engage Gen Z ?
Again, I’ll reiterate that when we’re having conversations with retailers about value, of course they’re also asking for more Japanese allocation. Which is ok, as I would rather be in demand than anything else. But I think value is not a bad problem to have. And, touch wood, I pray it continues.
I do feel that it’s more about experience that they’re asking for. They’re not coming to us and saying: we want 50% off .They’re coming to and saying: what can you do that’s different? What can you do in an F & B space? What can you do with digital, with omnichannel, what can you do from a brand ambassador experience? What can you do from personalisation?
So I think when we’re talking about value, we feel quite aligned and that we’re not just talking about generating cash for generating cash’s sake. It is about penetration, it’s about Gen Z, it’s about polarised spending, it’s about engaging even more about the future female shopper. So I think there’s actually been quite an aligned messaging between us and our retail partners.
PM: Let’s move on to how you’re spending your cash. You said for some time now that the company’s been prepared to “over invest” in travel retail. What does that actually mean in real terms in 2026, on the basis of the number of major airport projects you’re prepared to write cheques for?
AD: It’s all about experience. That’s where we look to invest into our airports this year.
PM: Can you give me some examples?
AD: I can give a number of examples, yes. We’ve just opened a shop-in-shop in Hong Kong for House of Suntory, ones in Melbourne and Sydney – again both for House of Suntory.And there are other projects.
PM: Are these new openings all clones or are they tailor-made for each location?
AD: They’re tailor made. More than that, they’re bespoke. And I think that’s what is really important for us. We’ve got an incredible Senior Marketing Director, who came from a big sports company and her attention to detail is unsurpassed. We actually use a very well respected agency.
So all of these different experiences are all bespoke for each of the locations. So if you’re flying out tomorrow and you go through Changi T3, you’ll see that our experience there, the shop-in- shop, when compared to the experience in Changi T4 – well, we’ve created two completely different concepts. This is because we understand that the shopper is different. As you know, there are different flight paths going through each terminal, so we need a different experience for every shopper.
So I would say investing in experience is really, really clear. As to the number of major airport projects we’re willing to write cheques for, that’s probably a harder question to answer.What I will say is that we’re open to ideas, we are not a closed book. If someone comes to us with some innovative ideas, we’re more than happy to have a conversation with them. We don’t have a fixed mindset. Of course every organization has budgets, but we don’t have a fixed position of what we want to do. And we’re only going to do, say, any pop up in a place that works for us. If someone comes to us with opportunities, we’re more than happy to listen.
PM: So if we looked at your 2026 investment plan line by line, where would we see the biggest tension between where you believe the brands need and what airports and retailers are actually prepared to support. Have the rules of the game changed?
AD: Not for me, no. I don’t think the rules of the game have changed. My one ask for the retailers would be that, if they’re coming to us and asking us for experiences, then we need to look closely at things like rental fees. Because building these experiences does not come cheap for us.
PM: You want your ROI, you’re not just showcasing for the sake of it.
AD: Yes. And that’s not saying, again, that Suntory is a closed book and we’re not saying we don’t pay rental fees or we’re not arrogant like that. We know there’s a ticket to pay and play. What I would say is, having a real collaboration on what that ROI is going to bring to everyone is key. You mentioned the Pentarchy in our earlier chat – we are aligned with that strategy.
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I’m going to bring it back to the shopper again. If we want to deliver world class, best in class experiences for the shopper, that costs money. It’s a big investment. We don’t believe in doing things half baked when it comes to our shopping experiences. But when you start to add up the shopper experiences, the rental, the promoter fees, there is a moment of time where you have to maybe consider whether this is the right thing to do.
PM:There’s always a financial threshold.
AD: Exactly.
PM: In most major experience promotions out there, you’re doing well to break even.
AD: So, yes, I would say that here’s where we are. Our investment lines are quite clear. We are investing in experiences and we’re investing in permanent visibility and we’re investing in brand ambassadors and we’re investing in activations.
PM: And, of course, you’re now also invested in Formula 1 as well.
AD: Yes, we signed a promotional deal with Cadillac for Jim Beam. When you watch F1 now, you can see the Jim Beam branding, which looks really good. I think the synergy between Cadillac and Jim Beam is a great match, a great association.
PM: Let’s take a look.
Just as a final footnote from the conversations I’ve had with retailers this week, they have been sympathetic to the situation that we’re in as suppliers, especially with the current geopolitical issues we are facing. I think there’s more dialogue around, what it actually means in terms of: would you rather us bring the experience or would you rather the hard cash when it comes to rentals and a lesser experience? And from what I’m seeing so far, I think there seems to be more of a synergy here.
PM: I think that’s actually very good to hear. Arguably long overdue. Moving on, and looking at this year’s program, which 2026 campaigns, launches or online extensions in travel retail do you think best sum up where you want to take the portfolio – whether that’s Japanese whisky, Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark or even your white spirits. And why?
AD: I’m going to use one specific example, and that one would be the Hibiki 12 launch. We’ve launched a travel retail exclusive this year. We believe we have a very strong mandate as a company to create a Japanese whisky category.
So whenever you go into a lot of stores across the world, actually, you see Asian spirits, you see Japanese spirits, you can also see it’s too generic. It can be a mix and match, depending on what airport you go to. So we are asking very politely with our retail partners that they create a Japanese whisky category for us.
There’s a couple of reasons for that. First, it’’s a growth engine for them. We’re not saying that the dedicated category has to be 100% Suntory-led Japanese whisky. You know, we have other partners within Japanese whisky that we can work with. But as category leaders, we feel it’s our responsibility to create this category.
I think that is going to be probably the biggest driver for us in terms of what we want to do this year in terms of changing the landscape of the retail environment. And we’ve had some very positive feedback so far. I think retailers see the value in Japanese whisky in terms of shopper navigation. Maybe I’m being too simple, Peter. But I think it would make things a lot easier, because the demand for Japanese whisky is so high. To have a dedicated Japanese whisky category I think would make navigation of the stores so much easier.
PM: Certainly, if the decluttering exercise continues amongst a number of retailers, it gives them permission to reconfigure how they merchandise the spirits area.
AD: Yes, absolutely.
PM: Well, that feeds nicely into the last question. We’ve obviously just heard one of your requests, but if there are two other things you want to communicate to the business right now, what would they be?
AD: Actually, I’ll give three more, and I’ll make these less Suntory-led and more industry-led. First, be brave. What we are seeing now is a slight blip in the geopolitical world and we’re always going to have that in GTR. So continue to invest in GTR, continue to invest in innovation, continue to get behind the channel. So my ask to my industry colleagues would be: let’s not lose momentum. We had a good couple of years and let’s not let any external factors make us lose that momentum.
The second one would be to be more innovative. Start thinking more creatively when it comes to using AI. An example that has always been a slight bugbear for me is when you’re creating a Diwali pack. Just changing the colours in the pack doesn’t necessarily make it a Diwali pack. You know, we have to really think more deeply about what that means and what messaging we’re sending to the shopper. So when it comes to packaging, when it comes to education, I really want this to be innovative in how we’re communicating with our shoppers.
And the last one is simple: share. I say this, and I think I said this to you the last time we spoke as well, this does not have to be a closed book industry. The more data that we get from our retailers, the more that we can understand their category strategies, the more we can help them. This channel has so much potential and so much to offer, but we can only do so much with the data that we get. So the more data we have access to, the more category insights that we can receive from our retailer partners, the more we can support them.
PM: Some great points on which to end this conversation. Thank you for your time, Alasdair.
AD: It’s been an absolute pleasure.Thank you, Peter.
