Pasta Evangelists has raised GBP3.5 million to expand across the UK. The funding has been led by leading consumer venture capital trust, Pembroke VCT and co-led by Guinness Asset Management. Founded by Genoa-born Alessandro Savelli in 2016, Pasta Evangelists’ mission is to provide the highest quality fresh pastas and pasta sauces in the UK to homes across the country, and one day internationally. The company’s chairman and co-founder is James McArthur, previously CEO of Harrods and several luxury fashion brands, including Balenciaga and Anya Hindmarch. Prue Leith, Giles Coren and William Sitwell also count among Pasta Evangelists’ co-founders and have been shareholders in the business since its inception.
Having first launched as an e-commerce business, Pasta Evangelists has since begun developing an omnichannel presence. In late 2018, it launched its first fresh pasta concession in the newly-renovated Harrods Food Hall, followed by launches on Ocado (as an FMCG brand) and Deliveroo (as a virtual restaurant, operating out of dark kitchens across the capital). In December 2019, Pasta Evangelists launched its second fresh pasta concession, this time in partnership with M&S in its revamped Hedge End site in Southampton.
According to a YouGov survey carried out in March 2019, Italian cuisine is the world’s most popular, receiving a 91 per cent popularity score in the UK (84 per cent worldwide). Globally, the pasta market is worth an estimated GBP23 billion, with the UK accounting for GBP3.8 billion.
In Savelli’s view, there is no branded premium offering in the fresh pasta & pasta sauce segment.
“The existing brands are mass scale; they are produced on an industrialised basis and have very long shelf lives. Very few new brands have emerged in the pasta category, whether in the UK or internationally, in the past few years.”
Savelli believes that the category of fresh pasta is undergoing the same wave of premiumisation, craft, freshness and an emphasis on provenance that has been seen in most other food & beverage categories in the last decade. From coffee and chocolate to craft gins, beers and even pizza, consumers are increasingly willing to trade up for differentiated products of distinctly higher quality.
Pasta Evangelists is developing a brand that is at the convergence of a renaissance of freshness and premiumness of pasta coupled with a new way of distributing food: online, in concessions and as a virtual restaurant.
Alessandro Savelli, Pasta Evangelists CEO and founder says: “We have seen that convenience and scale does not need to come at the expense of premium quality with the success of brands such as Innocent and Brewdog. The same applies to Pasta Evangelists. We have created high-end, restaurant-quality fresh pasta and sauces to be savoured and enjoyed at home. Prue Leith, one of our founding shareholders and Evangelists, perhaps summed it up best when she said – ‘I love it. Unashamedly top-end’. To have Pembroke, with their significant experience in helping build successful retail businesses, working with us is hugely exciting as we look to grow further.”
Andrew Wolfson, CEO Pembroke Investment Managers LLP, says: “Whilst the team have developed a remarkably impressive range of products, what makes this a compelling investment for us is the quality of the team behind Pasta Evangelists. Alessandro has demonstrated his ability to execute on new opportunities as they arise, evident in Pasta Evangelists’ omnichannel approach. We are excited at the prospect of physical space, the diverse routes to market and the touchpoints this provides the business with its consumers.”
