Seeking to expand their already successful business, founders of Manchester’s Italian wine café Veeno, Nino Caruso and Andrea Zecchino, have launched a new equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube to raise £210,000 to create ten new locations.
According to the campaign’s website, Veeno is an Italian wine café that promotes a different way of enjoying wine and food. Its wine is family-produced in Sicily, which is considered a tradition of four generations and today its family winery, Caruso & Minini, has been making award-winning wine and is recognized around the world.
The organizers of the campaign wrote, “Our wine offer is made of six labels for a total of twenty bottles. From the ‘house’ label priced at £9.99) to the finest red (£39.90), each wine has a unique taste and different selling points enabling us to target a broad audience. We are always happy to provide additional information and suggestions to help our customers chose the best bottle for them: each wine has a “key word” (i.e. “our driest”) to quickly understand the main characteristic.
“We also serve other traditional Italian products, including regional liqueurs and sparkling wines (i.e. prosecco), that are sourced from strictly selected suppliers. We have a ‘DIY – Do It Yourself’ wine tasting menu” which gives the opportunity to sample 6 different wines with paired ‘appetizers’ platter: the average rating based on customers feedback sheets is “4.8 out of 5” and 95% of them would recommend to friends and family.”
The company already has two cafés, located in Manchester and Leeds. With expansion plans, Veeno will become recognized as the “go-to” place for experiencing authentic Italian food and drink.
During a recent interview, Caruso stated, “We are really excited about our plans and keen to do what we are doing in Manchestor but throughout the UK. We want to reach ten locations in the next eighteen months and Crowdcube is helping us to do just that and is a great opportunity investors to support. We have already raised a significant amount so far.”
Also sharing details about first starting the café, Caruso noted, “While sipping beer with Andrea, we realized there was no place reproducing the Italian aperitivo, the act of drinking and nibbling in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. In addition, my family has been producing wine for generations, I am the fourth one, and I’ve always dreamed of spreading our heritage around the world.
Since both of us come from a business background, we sat at a table and looked for a business model that could support us in spreading these two amazing values. Veeno, in fact, is the combination of aperitivo and my family story, relaxed nibbling and an excellent selection of self-produced wines.”
Since launching its campaign, Veeno has already raised £43,510.
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