E-Malt.com News article: South Korea: Diageo cuts Korea Jobs as after-work drinking fades

Diageo Korea has offered voluntary redundancies to its entire workforce as the decline of South Korea’s once-pervasive after-work drinking culture weakens demand for whisky and other traditional alcoholic drinks, Vino Joy News reported on August 14.

The Johnnie Walker owner is offering departing employees compensation of up to 36 months’ salary, plus a special payment of 20 million won ($14,500), according to a report on South Korean portal Daum.

It is the company’s first redundancy programme in about two years, following a similar round in 2024. The move comes after Diageo Korea’s operating profit fell 48.1% last year to 9.4 billion won ($6.8 million).

Other whisky companies are also under pressure. Operating profit at South Korean whisky producer Golden Blue fell 36.3%, while Pernod Ricard Korea recorded a 71.6% decline.

Golden Blue cancelled its performance bonus last year, which had previously amounted to between 100% and 130% of an employee’s monthly salary. The company may again withhold bonuses this year because of its weak performance.

The downturn reflects more than a cyclical slowdown. South Korea’s drinks companies are confronting a structural change in when, where and why consumers drink.

After-work company gatherings, known as hoeshik, were once central to South Korean corporate life. They helped colleagues build relationships, bridged workplace hierarchies and were often viewed as an informal extension of the working day.

That was particularly true at large corporations and manufacturing companies, where drinking with colleagues could be seen as essential to fitting into a team and earning trust.

The gatherings frequently continued through several venues. A first round of dinner and soju might be followed by drinks at a bar, then a third stop at a karaoke room or entertainment venue.

That culture is fading as younger employees establish firmer boundaries between their professional and private lives.

Daum cited a corporate employee identified only by the surname A, who said the change had become clear during his 15 years in the workforce. Spontaneous company dinners that were once frequent now take place about once a month, he said.

Even when younger employees attend, they often leave early or decline invitations because they have plans to exercise, study a language or pursue other personal interests.

“In the past, company dinners meant everyone kept drinking,” he said. “Now it is normal to have a meal, drink a little and call it a night.”

Growing health awareness has accelerated the shift. Millennials and Generation Z employees are less likely to view heavy drinking as a professional obligation and are increasingly reluctant to sacrifice personal time for workplace socialising.

For spirits companies, the result is the erosion of a drinking occasion that once generated dependable, high-volume demand.

The change is visible in South Korea’s import data.

The country imported 8.86 million litres of whisky in the first half of 2026, down 20.36% from a year earlier, according to customs figures examined by Vino Joy News. Whisky remains South Korea’s largest imported spirits category.

The value of those imports slipped just 0.23% to $100.5 million. The sharp disparity between volume and value suggests that lower-priced, mass-market whisky has borne the brunt of the slowdown, while demand for some premium products has proved more resilient.

South Korean whisky imports surged in 2022 and 2023, supported by pandemic-era drinking at home and the popularity of highballs. Blended whisky also benefited from its suitability for social and group drinking.

For years, brands such as Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal were fixtures at business dinners and workplace gatherings. Their popularity was closely tied to a culture of collective drinking and corporate entertainment.

More expensive single malts have retained some demand as home drinking and consumer interest in whisky appreciation have expanded. But the weaker results at Diageo Korea and Pernod Ricard Korea suggest that individual consumption has not fully replaced the volumes once generated by business entertainment and workplace gatherings.

The same shift is affecting South Korea’s domestic drinks companies.

HiteJinro reported first-quarter revenue of 590.8 billion won ($429 million), down 3.6% from a year earlier. Operating profit fell 10.8% to 55.9 billion won ($40.6 million).

Soju sales declined 2.2%, while beer sales fell 7.9%.

With demand for traditional alcoholic drinks under pressure, South Korean producers are turning to lower-alcohol beverages, fruit flavours, smaller formats and ready-to-drink products to reach consumers outside conventional group-drinking occasions.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage reduced the alcohol content of its Saero soju from 16% to 15.7% and expanded the brand with fruit flavours and 200-millilitre bottles.

Its omija-flavoured Saero product, launched in late May, sold more than 2 million bottles in just over a month.

The company is also building its RTD business through Soonhari Gin, which encourages consumers to experiment with mixed drinks. The brand generated first-half sales of 17 billion won ($12.3 million), already exceeding its full-year 2025 sales of 16.2 billion won ($11.7 million).

HiteJinro has pursued a similar strategy. It introduced Hyoketsu Momo, a white-peach flavour from Kirin’s leading Japanese RTD range, last year and recently followed it with a lemon version.

The growth of those products reflects a broader migration between drinking occasions. Consumption is moving away from lengthy, compulsory gatherings and toward lighter, more convenient and individually chosen experiences.

South Koreans have not stopped drinking, but the occasions that once supported large volumes of whisky, soju and beer are disappearing.

For drinks companies, the challenge is to replace a deeply embedded culture of workplace drinking with products suited to smaller gatherings, home consumption and more personal interests. Their ability to make that transition will shape the next phase of competition in South Korea’s alcohol market.


14 August, 2026