Iconic Greater Manchester spirits firm, The Salford Rum Company, smashed its investment targets in just one hour this weekend, as it opened 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 expected its first day of fundraising to close at circa £200k, 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 £2.7 million 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 firm, also listed in World Duty Free, exports its spiced rums to international markets including Canada and Hong Kong.
Gaughan says: “We launched Salford Rum with just £5000 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!
“We’ve earnt our credentials as a local distiller in Greater Manchester and proved Salford Rum’s national appeal. We’re gearing up for or 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 remarkable growth, particularly with its flagship expressions, Salford Rum Dark Spice and Salford Rum Original, which has seen an 100% sales growth in the last year alone. 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 is available Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs) here. The initiative allows individual investors to invest as little as £25 with EIS tax relief.
Salford Rum was created when James and Tommy – rugby-league-playing high school friends – took inspiration from the gin category, which was flying due to buckets of innovation and creativity. In response they set out to make a local premium rum that would rival the luxury gin products on the market.
After learning about premium rum making on top of their day jobs, and with a small self-funded start up investment of £5,000, Tommy and James created their first golden spiced spirit – Salford Spiced Rum – as a passionate celebration of the history, heritage and people of the Salford Docks in Greater Manchester throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.
An era whereby the city’s Salford Docks grew to be the third largest port in the UK, Salford Spiced Rum takes its flavour inspiration from the rums, fruits and spices from the Caribbean which were landing on British shores for the first time in that bygone time.
