Business Development & Commercial Growth Trustee - Volunteer in London

We are looking for the next Business Development & Commercial Growth Trustee to join our board and help lead the strategy, developing the core team to continue growing our support for young refugees across the UK.

Breadwinners exists to create meaningful employment opportunities for young refugees and people seeking asylum. Our commercial success is not separate from our mission — it is the engine that powers it.

• Grow sustainable income across farmers’ markets (B2C) and wholesale partnerships (B2B).
• Strengthen margins, pricing strategy, and financial resilience in a competitive food market.
• Identify and prioritise high-potential growth opportunities within catering, hospitality, and ethical retail sectors.
• Build long‑term commercial partnerships that provide consistent and scalable revenue.
• Ensure our growth is disciplined, mission‑aligned, and operationally sustainable.

Every increase in sales directly translates into more paid work placements, more training, and more young refugees gaining UK work experience and confidence. Commercial growth at Breadwinners means dignity, independence, and opportunity for young people who face significant barriers to employment.

At a time when grant funding is uncertain and the food market is highly competitive, strengthening earned income is essential to our long‑term impact. This Trustee will help ensure that Breadwinners remains resilient, ambitious, and able to expand the number of young people we support each year.

The difference they will ensure that our social enterprise model does not just survive — but scales — creating lasting pathways into employment for hundreds more young refugees in the years ahead.

• Passionate about supporting refugees and young people seeking asylum.
• Experience in business development, sales, or commercial strategy.
• Understanding of the Social Enterprise sector.
• Knowledge of wholesale food distribution and/or catering supply chains.
• Experience growing both B2C and B2B revenue streams.
• Understanding of customer service excellence in retail or hospitality environments.
• Strong networks in the food, hospitality, organic, CSR and ethical consumer sectors.
• Experience scaling income‑generating activities within a social enterprise or purpose‑driven organisation (desirable).
• Strategic thinking and the ability to operate at the Board level.
• Commitment to supporting young refugees into meaningful employment.

About Our Board And This Opportunity

Breadwinners’ Board brings together experience across social enterprise, finance, safeguarding, impact, and organisational development. As a charity and social enterprise rooted in East London, we have built a proven model that combines employment, training, and mentoring for young refugees through farmers’ markets and, increasingly, wholesale partnerships.

Since starting at Victoria Park Market, we have supported over 850 young refugees to move into work, further education, or volunteering. We are now entering a critical stage of growth scaling our wholesale operations while maintaining strong market performance, operational quality, and social impact.

Our key challenges and goals over the next three years include:

• Growing and diversifying our wholesale (B2B) customer base.
• Increasing profitability and resilience across farmers’ markets (B2C).
• Strengthening pricing, margins, and commercial discipline.
• Expanding partnerships within catering, hospitality, and ethical food sectors.
• Ensuring commercial growth translates directly into more paid employment opportunities for young refugees.

To support this next phase, we are seeking a Trustee – Business Development & Commercial Growth to provide strategic commercial oversight at Board level.

• Provide guidance and constructive challenge on our Business Development and Sales Strategy.
• Support the Managing Director in shaping sustainable growth plans across B2C and B2B channels.
• Bring insight into wholesale food distribution, catering supply chains, and customer acquisition.
• Strengthen the Board’s oversight of commercial KPIs, margins, and financial sustainability.
• Help identify new market opportunities, partnerships, and routes to scale.
• Where appropriate, leverage relevant networks within food, hospitality, retail, or corporate procurement sectors.

The Trustee may be invited to chair or sit on a Growth or Commercial subcommittee (subject to Board structure), helping to shape priorities between Board meetings.

This is an exciting opportunity because commercial growth at Breadwinners is directly linked to social impact. Every new wholesale contract and every increase in market performance creates real, paid employment for a young refugee taking their first steps into the UK workforce.

This Trustee will not simply help grow sales — they will help build a sustainable social enterprise that changes lives through dignified work, entrepreneurship, and opportunity. At a time when funding environments are uncertain, strengthening earned income is essential. The right Trustee will play a pivotal role in ensuring Breadwinners remains resilient, ambitious, and capable of supporting even more young people into meaningful employment.