Why the World’s #1 Bourbon and Japanese Whisky Producer Replaced Its PLM — and What It Found

Suntory Global Spirits chose Trace One Devex PLM after a previous implementation failed. Here’s what they learned about what spirits companies actually need from product lifecycle management.

What Happens When a Spirits Company Chooses the Wrong PLM?

Not all PLM implementations succeed. Suntory Global Spirits — the world’s #1 producer of Bourbon and Japanese Whisky, operating 32 distilleries across 65 countries — learned this firsthand.

In 2018, Suntory implemented a PLM platform. Within a year, the system encountered significant issues. Shortly after, the vendor issued an end-of-life notification. For a company managing complex spirits formulations across dozens of global markets, this was not merely an IT inconvenience — it was a disruption to product development, regulatory compliance, and cross-functional collaboration across R&D, Regulatory, Packaging, and IT teams.

This experience is more common than the industry acknowledges. PLM platforms designed for discrete manufacturing — assembling parts, managing CAD files, tracking engineering changes — are structurally different from what process manufacturers need. Spirits companies manage irreversible formulations, market-specific ingredient regulations, and new product development pipelines where a single flavor trend can demand dozens of new SKUs simultaneously.

Why Did Suntory Choose Trace One Devex PLM Over Competing Vendors?

When Suntory re-entered the PLM market, they ran a rigorous competitive evaluation. The result was Trace One Devex PLM — chosen not for generic PLM capabilities, but for category-specific expertise.

Two factors separated Trace One from competing vendors. First, 30+ years of experience serving process manufacturers in food, beverage, and spirits specifically — not discrete manufacturing adapted for process use. Second, Trace One’s partnership with DISCUS (the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States), which provides regulatory and industry standards guidance specific to the spirits category.

This distinction matters because the alcoholic beverages market is becoming more complex, not less. According to Mintel’s 2025 research, 39% of Gen Z consumers now discover new alcohol flavors through social media — compressing the time from trend to shelf and putting unprecedented pressure on product development speed. Brands are simultaneously launching sweet-heat variants, wellness-infused lines, and variety packs that each require distinct formulations, regulatory validation, and labeling.

For Suntory, a PLM vendor that understood these category-specific challenges — rather than one offering a generic platform — was the difference between a successful implementation and another failure.

How Is Suntory Rolling Out PLM Across Its Global Operations?

Rather than attempting a simultaneous global deployment — an approach that contributes to high PLM failure rates — Suntory adopted a phased strategy. The US market launched first in 2021, followed by Canada and Spain in 2023, with additional regions in the pipeline.

This approach reflects a broader principle: successful product lifecycle management implementations in the spirits industry require time to configure category-specific workflows, validate regulatory data by market, and train cross-functional teams. Suntory is explicitly working toward self-sufficiency — understanding when to customize the platform versus leveraging out-of-the-box functionality.

The cross-functional scope is notable. Trace One Devex PLM at Suntory spans R&D (formulation and product development), Regulatory (compliance across markets), Packaging (specifications and supplier data), and IT (integration and system architecture). This breadth validates one of the core messages that resonates in PLM evaluations: end-to-end coverage from stage-gate through compliance, not point solutions stitched together.

Why Does Spirits Industry Expertise Matter More Than Generic PLM Features?

Suntory’s experience echoes what Brown-Forman — the 5th-largest global spirits company — discovered independently. Both companies chose Trace One Devex PLM for the same fundamental reason: spirits manufacturing requires PLM built for process manufacturing, not adapted from discrete.

The Mintel data reinforces why this expertise gap matters commercially. With 66% of US consumers preferring alcoholic beverages made with natural ingredients and premiumization driving consumers toward fewer, higher-quality drinks (85% of Boomers prefer quality over quantity), spirits companies face simultaneous pressures on formulation innovation, ingredient transparency, and regulatory compliance.

A PLM platform that understands spirits-specific regulatory bodies like the TTB, that includes a regulatory intelligence database covering 37,000+ legal statutes across 170+ countries, and that supports formulation management with what-if analysis for ingredient substitution — these are not features that can be retrofitted onto a platform designed for assembling physical products.

An independent Total Economic Impact™ study found that organizations using Trace One Devex PLM achieved 70% ROI, $6.06M in benefits, and a 16-month payback period — outcomes that reflect the value of purpose-built process PLM over generic alternatives.

What Questions Should Spirits Companies Ask When Evaluating PLM Software?

Based on Suntory’s experience and the broader alcoholic beverages market dynamics that Mintel documents, spirits companies evaluating PLM software for food and beverage should ask five questions:

First, is this platform architecturally built for process manufacturing? Spirits formulations are irreversible chemical processes. A PLM designed for discrete assembly — CAD files, bill of materials, engineering change orders — will not manage formulation versioning, ingredient substitution analysis, or regulatory validation natively.

Second, does the vendor have verifiable spirits industry experience? Suntory’s deciding factor was “unmatched spirits industry experience.” Ask for named spirits references, not just food and beverage generically.

Third, does the platform cover your regulatory markets? With Trace One’s regulatory intelligence database spanning 37,000+ legal statutes across 170+ countries, market-specific compliance is embedded — not a bolt-on module requiring manual updates.

Fourth, does the vendor support phased implementation? Suntory’s success came from a deliberate US-first approach with planned expansion. Avoid vendors pushing simultaneous global deployment.

Fifth, can the platform serve all stakeholder functions? Suntory’s deployment spans R&D, Regulatory, Packaging, and IT. If the PLM serves only one function, you will end up with point solutions and data silos — the same fragmentation that drives companies to PLM in the first place.

Trace One Devex PLM includes AI-powered capabilities for data extraction from supplier specifications, regulatory queries in natural language, and automated certificate management — capabilities that further accelerate the processes Suntory and Brown-Forman depend on daily.