Tsingtao beer importer asks employees to resign after urination video leads to sales drop

BK has already encouraged all of its 120 employees to resign voluntarily, offering severance packages, according to industry insiders on Wednesday.

An image from the video in which a man urinates in a Tsingtao manufacturing facility China [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BK, the Korean importer of China's Tsingtao beer, is downsizing its workforce as its business struggles after a video of a man peeing in Tsingtao's brewery went viral.

BK has already encouraged all of its 120 employees to resign voluntarily, offering severance packages, according to industry insiders on Wednesday.

The amount of severance pay differs based on the employee's length of stay at the company.

Though BK said that the beer produced at the manufacturing facility shown in the video was not exported to Korea, sales for Tsingtao have dwindled.

Domestic sales for the beer have reportedly dropped by almost half.

Additionally, imports of Chinese beer dropped 42.6 percent last month compared to last year in October, according to trade statistics from the Korea Customs Service on Thursday.

Japanese beer imports instead increased by 300 percent in the same period.

Chinese beer imports have been reducing since July, and last month marked the 4th consecutive month of import drops.

It was confirmed by the Chinese police and BK after their joint investigation that the man in the video had indeed urinated in a Tsingtao brewery in Pingdu in Shandong province on Oct. 19.

After getting involved in a dispute among workers related to vehicle movement, he climbed on a truck and relieved himself. The video of him was obtained through the vehicle's dashboard camera. The man has now been detained.

"We have no choice but to tighten management due to the recent sharp drop in sales," BK said. "This is for the company's survival."

BY KIM JU-YEON, KIM HONG-BUM, LEE HAY-JUNE [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]