Salford Rum smashes investment round in one hour as backers flock to popular brand
Greater Manchester spirits firm, The Salford Rum Company, smashed its investment targets in just one hour last weekend.
It opened the round to secure £250,000 in funding to further build the Salford Rum brand, increase capacity at its Dirty Old Town Distillery and expand its national footprint.
Co-founder, Tommy Gaughan, said he expected the first day of fundraising to close at around £200,000, and credits the 115% fulfilment in just 60 minutes to Salford Rum’s ‘cult following’, and ‘established national footprint’.
The £250,000 target was raised on top of its pre-money valuation of £2.7m and the brand is stocked in thousands of outlets across the country, including Selfridges, Waitrose, Co-op, Morrisons, Master of Malt, Amazon, JW Lees pubs, and The Ivy. The £1.25m-turnover firm, also listed in World Duty Free, exports its spiced rums to international markets including Canada and Hong Kong.
He said: “We launched Salford Rum with just £5,000 to produce our first 100 bottles and ran it alongside full time jobs for five years.
“We’ve grown Salford Rum to where it is today without significant investment and could not be prouder. We’re raising investment for the very first time to fuel growth even more and to see it go through the roof has been incredible.”
He added: “We’ve earned our credentials as a local distiller in Greater Manchester and proved Salford Rum’s national appeal. We’re gearing up for our next step and by securing funding we’re giving our community the chance to buy equity in our business and be part of some truly exciting growth plans.”
Since its inception in 2018, Salford Rum has achieved impressive growth, particularly with its flagship expressions, Salford Rum Dark Spice and Salford Rum Original, which have seen 100% sales growth in the past year.
The firm opened its first brand home, bar and distillery in 2022 which has proved popular with locals and tourists and enabled the Salford Rum team to be more agile and creative in spirits development.
Salford Rum’s fundraising offer allows individual investors to invest as little as £25 with EIS tax relief.
