Suntory Global Spirits Appoints Industry Veteran Bruce Song to Lead New Asia Pacific Commercial Excellence Team

Singapore, April 29, 2025 – Suntory Global Spirits, a world leader in premium spirits, has announced the appointment of Bruce Song as Vice President, Commercial Excellence for Asia Pacific (APAC). Based in South Korea, Song will oversee the newly established Commercial Excellence team in APAC, with a focus on enhancing consumer engagement and accelerating business growth across seven markets – Oceania, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Commercial Excellence function will collaborate with local commercial and marketing teams to drive strategic growth, working closely with counterparts in North America and Europe to execute against a globally aligned strategy grounded in data and insights.

“The establishment of our Commercial Excellence team in APAC is a critical step to strengthening our regional capabilities and accelerating growth,” said Masato Hayashi, President, APAC and Global Commercial Excellence, Suntory Global Spirits.

“Bruce’s experience, strategic mindset and people-first leadership will help strengthen our ability to build iconic premium brands and consistently create incredible experiences for customers across the region.”

A results-driven leader with over 25 years of global experience across commercial, marketing and management roles, Song brings strategic foresight and a collaborative leadership style to the team.

“We want Suntory Global Spirits to be the Most Admired premium commercial organisation, and the preferred spirits partner for our customers,” said Song. “The Commercial Excellence agenda is essential to reaching this ambition and delivering sustainable growth – providing a shared set of global standards, as well as the tools, insight and commercial capabilities we need to support executional excellence and best-in-class customer engagement across our key markets.

“We have a great opportunity in APAC to tailor our approach, while ensuring consumers experience our brands with the consistent quality and craftsmanship they expect.”

Song joined Suntory Global Spirits in 2017 as Managing Director of Korea, establishing the Korea route to market and business entity. More recently, he served as Managing Director of Emerging Asia, leading a team of more than 200 across Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Song will report to Hayashi and serve on the APAC and Global Commercial Excellence leadership teams.

About Suntory Global Spirits

As a world leader in premium spirits, Suntory Global Spirits inspires the brilliance of life, by creating rich experiences for people, in harmony with nature. Known for its craftsmanship of premium whiskies, including Jim Beam® and Maker’s Mark®; Japanese whiskies, including Yamazaki®, Hakushu®, Hibiki®, Toki™ and Suntory Kakubin®; and leading Scotch brands including Laphroaig® and Bowmore®, Suntory Global Spirits also produces leading brands such as Tres Generaciones® and El Tesoro® tequila, Roku™ and Sipsmith® gin, and is a world leader in Ready-To-Drink cocktails, with brands like -196™ (minus one-nine-six) and On The Rocks™ Premium Cocktails.

A global company with approximately 6,000 employees in nearly 30 countries, Suntory Global Spirits is driven by its core values of Growing for Good, Yatte Minahare and Giving Back to Society. The company’s Proof Positive sustainability strategy includes ambitious goals and investments to drive sustainable change and have a positive impact on the planet, consumers and communities. Headquartered in New York City, Suntory Global Spirits is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan. For more information, visit www.suntoryglobalspirits.com

JULY 2025 AUCTION ENDS SOON!

Not long now! There is still time to bid on your favourite bottles, including this very limited Macallan Private Eye, surely one of the most recognisable bottles in the whisky world. Commissioned in 1996 by Private Eye to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the magazine. The unusual screen-printed label design was created by magazine illustrator Ralph Steadman. The whisky itself was vatted using a combination of Casks including a 35 year old Cask from 1961, the same year that Private Eye was founded. Bottle 2834 of only 5000 produced.

Distilled in 1982 by the Highland distillery Brora and then bottled at natural Cask strength in 2003, this 20 year old expression is a jewel in the Rare Malts range. Bottle 1527.

One of the later releases to the Flora & Fauna series, introduced in 2001, this glen Elgin bottling was part of the range for only a brief period, before being discontinued and launched as part of the Hidden Malts Range in 2002.

Although the Glen Garioch 21 Years Old was available for a short period in the 1980’s, it was after the re-awakening of the distillery in 1997 that it was reintroduced to the range. This was discontinued in 2009 due to an entire relaunch of the Distillery’s core range.

These are only a few of the lots in our July 2025 Auction, to view more, visit clickwhiskyauctions.com. Register to bid. Remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it! Auction ends Sunday 20th July from 8pm BST.

The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025 is an international sailing event where tall ships from around the world compete and showcase their vessels. Tall Ships is Europe’s largest free family event. Aberdeen will serve as a host city, and it will be a major event with activities, parades, and cultural festivities over several days.

Glen Garioch 11 Years Old Aberdeen Whisky

In celebration of the Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025, we’ve bottled an incredible single cask, 11 year old whisky, from our beloved local distillery, Glen Garioch. Notes of honey, caramel and oak spice. Only 250 bottles.

£59.99

SAMPLE IMAGE

Subtle Spirits 12 Year Old K&L Exclusive single barrel #RLK-117 Indiana Straight Rye Whiskey (750ml) $169.99 View

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

WHAT IS RYE WHISKEY?

Rye whiskey is experiencing an exciting renaissance, so we’re diving into its fascinating history and modern resurgence.

Once America’s first homegrown spirit, rye whiskey has travelled far from its East Coast origins. Learn how rye whiskey survived Prohibition, fell out of fashion in the ’60s and now thrives thanks to craft distillers and cocktail bars revitalising classic recipes.

Explore the innovative approaches European distillers bring to this historic grain.

LEARN MORE

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ralfy review 1087 Extras – Why Scotch Whisky is Changing.

PRODUCTION TEAM’S DISTILLERY UPDATE

by Findlay Ross, Director of Production

It’s a recurring theme from myself when writing these updates, but the first six months of this year have flown in! We restarted in January, as usual, by firing up the Maltings and the Still House at Springbank – both with minimal issues, thankfully, after being silent since late December for our Christmas and New Year break!

Our three stills will be sent for refurbishment at the end of this production period, so we are hoping that they all last until September before receiving their new lease of life when they are trucked up to Forsyths in Elgin for some much needed tender loving care.

Our Maltings received a bit of an ‘upgrade’ this year too, with a fine-tuned modulating burner being installed, which will be powered by Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). This will give our team far greater temperature control and the ability to produce more consistent and high yielding malt as a result.

Another area of improvement this year is changing the style of malt turners we use to ones that are lighter, quieter, and less prone to breakdowns – a project our Technical Support Coordinator, Ben Huysamer, has been working on with Assistant Production Manager, Robert McGarrie and the rest of the Malting Team.

We have experienced a far milder year so far, with late spring/early summer temperatures already exceeding the peaks of 2024, and this has presented a challenge to our Malt Team as they aim to keep germination temperatures between 16-20 degrees – this has been achieved by stretching out the malt floors and introducing some bigger floor fans to ensure a higher flow through of air.

We remain on track to hit our production target of 34 weeks of distillation at Springbank Distillery, having already made 181,400 litres of alcohol split between Springbank, Longrow, Hazelburn, and two separate types of Local Barley spirit from varieties grown at two different farms in Kintyre.

Our major capital expenditure project, the construction of a purpose-built Bottling and Dispatch Facility next to Glengyle Distillery, has progressed massively this year to the point where we now have something that resembles a building! We remain on track to move from our current Bottling Hall to the new building in March 2026, but there is still a lot of work to be done in the background with local contractors, McFadyens, to achieve this.

Overall, it’s been a very busy and successful first half of 2025, and we’re hoping for more of the same in part two!

ONE WEEK ONLY:
JAPANESE WHISKY OFFERS

This is a rare chance to delight in the unmistakable character of Japan’s most sought-after whiskies. For one week only, we have stand out prices of up to 33% off on a selection of elegant single malts. You’ll find the peated anniversary release from Hakushu, a barley-led experiment from Yamazaki and a remarkable collaboration between Chichibu and Komagatake.

SHOP NOW

2025 Pinhook 9 year old “Another Round Another Rally” K&L Wine Merchants Single Barrel #2409 Indiana Straight Rye Whisky (750ml) $79.99 View

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA