Member Article

Manchester wine café chain set to expand thanks to crowdfunding

The entrepreneurs behind Veeno, an Italian wine café in Manchester city centre, have revealed plans to launch ten new venues as it raises investment via crowdfunding.

Nino Caruso, who launched Veeno with business partner Andrea Zecchino last November, said they want to replicate the success of their Albert Square venue in other parts of the UK.

It has recently launched Veeno in Leeds, with plans to launch a third venue in York before Christmas, with each venue creating eight jobs.

The company is aiming to raise £210,000 to accelerate its expansion plans and has so far raised over £38,000 through crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube, just three weeks after launching its funding campaign.

Nino Caruso said: “We are really excited about our plans and keen to do what we are doing in Manchester but throughout the UK.

“We want to reach 10 locations in the next 18 months and Crowdcube is helping us to do just that and is a great opportunity for investors to support us. We have already raised a significant amount so far.”

Veeno was born as a single store in Manchester, and strives to become the first branded wine café chain in the UK.

The wine is supplied by a Sicilian vineyard owned by Nino’s family called Caruso & Minini. As well as a selection of fine Italian wines, Veeno also serves traditional spuntini (appetisers) which include Italian meats and cheeses.

Mr Caruso, who came to the UK five years ago to study business management at Durham University, launched the business after seeing a gap in the market for a ‘relaxed wine café’.

He said: “While sipping beer with Andrea, we realised 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.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .