When in Rome raises £400k for future investment

By Michelle Perrett

Published: 03 December, 2021

When in Rome, the Stroud-based wine company, has hit its £400,000 Crowdcube funding target with the support of over 180 investors.

The Italian craft wine specialists launched the fundraising initiative to help it further develop the business by investing in new product development such as paper bottles, hiring new key people, upscaling its marketing efforts as well as expanding distribution.

When in Rome has labelled itself as the UK’s leading alt-format wine brand, with a mission to make wine with a low carbon footprint more accessible, while focusing on wines from Italy. The company offers the eco-friendly packaging formats such as bag-in-box, cans, and recycled polyethylene terephthalate bottles.

It was co-founded in 2015 by Rob Malin, Andrea Marchesi and Lorenzo Canali and launched into the mainstream market in 2017 with distribution through supermarket chain Waitrose.

The company revealed that it increased revenue from £379K in 2019 to £654K in 2020. It then launched a new line of boxed wines alongside TV Presenter Philip Schofield, which were available exclusively in Waitrose stores and Waitrose Cellar.

“We’re so pleased to have reached our target of £400,000. We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to own a little piece of When in Rome and join us on our mission to become the leading premium alt wine brand globally and achieve revenue of £20m by 2025,” said Rob Malin, ceo of When in Rome.

“This extra investment will help us work towards ensuring that our product is the most sustainable out there.”

When in Rome recently revealed that it has become the first wine brand in the UK to implement a climate footprint label on its packaging. The Gloucestershire-based sustainable wine brand has partnered with CarbonCloud to quantify its product’s carbon footprint and bring more transparency to its climate impact.

It found that its bag-in-box wine created 41% less carbon compared to a traditional glass bottled wine, with 39% of the wine industry’s CO2 emissions globally are caused by single use glass bottles.

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