Veeno’s ultimate aim is to expand nationally across the UK, but it will focus the first part of its expansion on the north of England. Co-founder Nino Caruso told BigHospitality that he intends for Veeno, which already has two sites in Manchester and Leeds, to be the ‘first wine café chain’ in the UK.
“We’re already working to open our third site in York, and that will probably be up and running before Christmas this year,” explained Caruso.
“The next cities that we’ll take a look at will be Liverpool and Newcastle. Then we have a pool of big cities we’d like to set up in starting from the north of England and moving south.
“There are also some smaller towns that we keep an eye on though, to see if there is anything happening there that could be interesting for our business. Places like Harrogate and Chester for example.
“The plan for Veeno is to become national in five years. We’re talking about London, Bristol, Cambridge and further south. We’ll go elsewhere as well, the furthest north we’re looking at the moment is Newcastle, but we’d be interested in Edinburgh and beyond too."
Venno hopes to raise the funds for the opening of its next four sites through a crowdfunding campaign which began last week and will run for two months.
Concept
Caruso said that Veeno is aiming to establish itself in larger cities first because the concept works well in places with large numbers of professionals.
“Veeno works well in Manchester and Leeds where there is certain kind of professional looking for a high quality offering, but value for money too. They want to be sure they pay the right amount for what’s on offer and Veeno appeals to them.”
Veeno serves self-produced wine from Caruso’s family vineyard alongside a number of Italian-style small dishes, sharing platters and desserts.
“With the café we wanted to replicate the concept of apperitivo that we have in Italy, the act of drinking and nibbling in an informal and relaxed atmosphere,” he said.