The firm that makes Soju, HiteJinro Group, is set to start work on a factory in Vietnam’s Thai Binh province in 2025. The factory will be the firm’s first production facility outside of South Korea and is expected to go into operation in 2026.
Vietnam has become a popular manufacturing location for foreign beverage firms. Heineken, for example, which entered the Vietnam market in 1991, currently boasts six factories and 3,000 employees; Coca-cola also has three factories in Vietnam with a fourth on the way; and Pepsi’s Vietnam based subsidiary Suntory PepsiCo also started construction on its biggest facility in the Asia-Pacific region in southern Vietnam’s Long An province, in April of this year.
These firms stand to benefit from not only a rapidly growing consumer market but also a number of benefits that come with manufacturing in Vietnam including low-cost labour and tax incentives.