As Tinie Tempah rapped in his 2010 number one hit Pass Out 'Disturbing London, baby, we about to branch out', his cousin - and former manager - Dumi Obruta is truly branching out as by creating the first Black British-owned and Black British-funded sparkling wine brand named Severun.
While still being in its infancy, having been set up in 2023, it is already featured on the wine lists of leading bars and restaurants across the capital including The Conduit, The Standard and 67 Pall Mall. The company is Dumi's vision to make luxury accessible to those who are underrepresented in the culture and with him on the way is CEO of Severun, Dan Perry.
They see themselves as industry changemakers, coming to disturb the status quo of British Sparkling Wine all doing it while championing diversity. Dan said: "We wanted to create an all-black-owned sparkling wine business in the UK that really represents the dynamism and excitement around cities like London.
"Dumi's plugged into the culture in the UK and worldwide....and what we noticed was that English sparkling wine, whilst its booming and been doing really well, the imagery of it and what we think of as the typical English sparkling wine drinker because of imagery, is linen, picnic baskets, green rolling country hills, Labradors, it's not London."
This is part of Severun's aim, to bring this brand and culture of luxury into London and change the narrative and imagery around it. Dumi said: "It's always been about opening the doors for people that look like us from cosmopolitan places where we come from. And it's aspirational, it's always been about inspiring and doing things that people feel we can't do.
"Understanding that brands and luxury goods change the perception of how we're seen and what people aspire to be. I realise the power of brands and that was what made me want to do Severun because over the years I've been working with these luxury brands and they've always used the culture as a catalyst to get into things or launch things.
"A majority of the time we don't have any real equity stake in the business in that sense. We're not actually behind the lens and we're not in front of the lens in an authentic way."
Severun has a sustainable supply chain with Chardonnay grapes grown in Franschhoek, South Africa and the wine being produced in Hampshire. It has proved a hit so far. The black and gold bottle - sold at £46 - stands out on a shelf and oozes luxury. Severun are also adding new sizes to the brand plus a Rosé to come out later in the year.
Dan explains that this year they have a soft launch in Ghana before spreading to Nigeria, the UAE and other places. The bottle will also be sold on Amazon and they are set to make ten times the sales in 2024 than they did in 2023. The outlook looks bright for the fresh business.
'We don't want to be pigeonholed as the black-owned wine company forever'
The business not only has a majority of black funders but also many of the staff are from a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities. This was part of their hiring strategy, to make sure that they have a more diverse range of people in roles in the company. Dan said: "A key consideration is going out and making sure we are giving young people the opportunities to come in and do something that perhaps wouldn't be accessible to them before."
But Dumi and Dan don't want themselves to be pigeonholed as the black-owned wine company forever. Dumi said: "The black-owned thing is very important and it's the foundation of the business. But that's because the majority of businesses in the world are white-owned.
"Having to say it's a black-owned business, it's just, you know, putting out his statement because this statement is very rare. But we would like to get to a point where you don't have to say something about being a black-owned business because it should be normal that other people of different races should be able to own businesses and sell their products to the mass market just the same way."
The drink is there to represent inspiration and a big disruptor to the market. Dumi points out that currently, non-English diasporas are really succeeding a really succeeding at the moment in culinary circles and pop culture to name a few. The popularisation of non-white culture in new ventures has seen the growth of more people of colour exploring the vast array of options that they did not know were accessible to them.
Dumi wants to inspire the same through luxury brands. "Let's make our kids or the people around us feel more accepted in certain environments, luxury doesn't have to be white-washed," he said.
You can purchase a bottle and read more about Severun on their website HERE.
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