Diageo-owned whisky brand Johnnie Walker is considering its extravagant Johnnie Walker House experiential concept for the airport channel, having opened two domestic locations in China.

 

Today at the TFWA Asia Pacific conference in Singapore, President of Diageo Asia Pacific, Gilbert Ghostine (below), told a large audience at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center that a priority in the region has been to understand exactly what Asia Pacific consumers want and that, he believes, is a luxury retail experience.

 

“We can do that by creating environments they won’t find anywhere else and which exceed their expectations,” he said. One such experience, developed by his team in the region is the Johnnie Walker House, a part experiential, part retail concept that brings Scotland to China specifically targeting high net worth individuals (HNWIs).

 

The houses – of which there are currently two, one in Shanghai opened in 2011 and one in Beijing (pictured above) opened in December – act as “embassies for Johnnie Walker” and are lavish affairs presenting some of the brand’s rarest editions to HNWIs.

 

Ghostine said: “We will open another one in Seoul, South Korea in September with 10-12 others around the world. We are now also considering them for key airports.”