Korean non-alcoholic brand IGIN enters US market through BevMo!

The "sober curious" lifestyle — enjoying the atmosphere and flavors of drinking without the intoxication — is gaining momentum worldwide. Amid a shifting global beverage alcohol market, IGIN has become the first Korean non-alcoholic brand to secure placement in BevMo!, the largest specialty liquor retail chain on the US West Coast. IGIN is a non-alcoholic brand operated by Genie's Lamp.

BevMo! is a large-format specialty liquor chain with annual sales of about 800 billion won ($597 million). Its parent company, Gopuff, operates more than 1,000 logistics hubs across 30 US states. IGIN will also be listed on Gopuff's online channel, the largest quick-commerce platform in the United States.

The achievement is considered exceptional for a young startup that broke directly into a mainstream US retail network. Rather than viewing structural shifts in the domestic and global beverage alcohol market as a mere downturn, IGIN has framed them as the birth of a new market — and used a differentiated "K-non-alcoholic" category to push into global markets.

Before entering the US, IGIN spent two years building its own distribution networks across Asia and Latin America. The brand sold out pre-orders at Lawson convenience stores in Japan and secured placement with the AEON Group, listed on Tmall — China's largest e-commerce platform — and entered 275 locations of the offline select shop KKV, and locked in all channels of Robinsons Retail Group, the second-largest distributor in the Philippines, completing a distribution network spanning nine countries. As a result, more than 60 percent of total sales now come from overseas.

The brand also leveraged early buzz generated through its global ambassador, BTS member Jin.

"For a young startup that cannot rely on capital or established brand recognition, the only way through was to spot subtle needs in the global market faster than anyone else and prove them with on-the-ground data," said Kim Ye-sung, head of business at Genie's Lamp. "We will write a new equation for K-non-alcoholic beverages, building on our entry into BevMo! and Gopuff in the United States," he added.