Kloud sales grow 30% every month

Kloud

More than 100 million bottles of Kloud have been sold since the beer debuted in April, Lotte Liquor said Thursday.

That translates to three bottles consumed by all Korean adults - and an average monthly sales growth of 30 percent, the company said.

The highest sales came in December when the Christmas season and year-end parties took place.

Lotte promoted Kloud with the slogan “original gravity.”

The specific gravity of beer is a measure of density, Lotte says, and Kloud is denser than its competitors. The idea was to differentiate it from existing beer brands, which are widely known to be watery and plain.

Encouraged by the success of Kloud, Lotte Liquor plans to expand production.

Lotte said it has completed the remodeling of its factory in Chungju, North Chungcheong, in a push to double the production of alcoholic beverages including Kloud and its signature soju Chum-Churum.

Kloud will be manufactured at that facility starting from March.

Lotte Liquor will also build its second soju production facility by 2016 in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, allocating 90 billion won ($85.8 million) for land previously owned by Chungbuk Soju, a Lotte subsidiary. The factory will have an annual capacity of 300 million bottles of Chum-Churum and 500 million liters of Kloud.

Ground will be broken on the construction of the new factory in April.

Sales of Chum-Churum increased an average of 7 percent annually over the past five years. At major discount supermarkets, Kloud has captured a 10 percent market share.

Before Kloud was introduced, the beer market was dominated by Oriental Brewery and Hite-Jinro.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]