Client: RPG LAB (SULKIT)
Industry: Korean traditional drinks, DIY makgeolli brewing kits
Project: Overseas partner research and prioritization
Results: 1,000 potential overseas partners identified and verified, delivered as a ranked sales list within two weeks
RPG LAB is a Daejeon-based company founded in 2021 that makes SULKIT, a powdered kit for brewing Korean makgeolli. The kit combines Korean rice and nuruk, a traditional fermentation starter. The user adds water, waits for fermentation, and ends up with fresh makgeolli, typically in about a day under recommended conditions.
The idea behind SULKIT is simple but unusual: instead of shipping a finished bottled drink, RPG LAB ships the starting point, and the brewing happens where the drink will be enjoyed. The powder contains no alcohol before fermentation.
RPG LAB built SULKIT for international markets from the start. Its website runs in English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, features creator films from Vietnam, and speaks directly to importers, distributors, and brand partners, from retail distribution to OEM collaboration.
Most Korean food and beverage exporters can describe their buyer in one line: a liquor importer, an Asian grocery distributor, a supermarket chain. SULKIT does not fit neatly into any single one of those boxes, and that is both its opportunity and its sales problem.
Korean food has reached global audiences, but makgeolli remains a discovery product for most consumers outside Korea. Partners need to see why it can sell before they commit shelf space or a purchase order.
Because SULKIT is a dry brewing ingredient rather than a bottled drink, potential partners range widely: drinks importers, Korean and Asian food distributors, home brewing suppliers, specialty and gift retailers, and companies interested in OEM or private label collaboration. Each of these buyers evaluates the product differently.
How a powdered brewing kit is classified and sold, and what local rules apply to home or commercial brewing, varies from market to market. That shapes which partners are realistic in each country, so prospecting has to account for it from the start.
For a small team, the risk is clear: spending months contacting companies that were never the right fit, while the partners who would understand the product immediately go unfound.
We started from SULKIT's product and its intended channels, retail distribution and OEM collaboration, and defined which kinds of companies made sense as partners in the target markets. Rather than one generic "food and beverage importer" profile, the criteria reflected the different partner types a brewing kit can work with.
Using those criteria, we researched overseas companies and identified the people responsible for purchasing, category management, or new product sourcing at each. Every record was verified so RPG LAB would not spend time on companies that had closed, changed focus, or had no realistic reason to carry the product.
We classified the potential partners by type and ranked them by how well they matched SULKIT's channels. That gave RPG LAB a clear starting order: approach first the partners most likely to understand a makgeolli brewing kit and move it in their market.
Finally, we supported RPG LAB in putting the list to work, so it could be used directly in outreach alongside the business enquiry process the company already runs on its website.
A product that sits between categories has more potential partners than it first appears, but only if you look beyond the obvious one. Listing every channel a product could realistically sell through is the first step to finding buyers others miss.
In food and beverage, especially anything involving alcohol, regulation decides which partners are viable. Building that filter in early prevents wasted outreach.
When a category is new to a market, the first conversation is about why it sells, not about price. Partners who already sell Korean or craft products are often the fastest to understand the opportunity.
DeepSales helps Korean food, beverage, and consumer brands find overseas partners who fit, reach them with personalized multilingual outreach, and follow up until conversations turn into meetings. If your product is new to the markets you are targeting, talk to DeepSales about building the pipeline to bring it there.