Woolworths and social enterprise bakery The Bread & Butter Project have extended their retail partnership with the opening of its first concession store in Sydney’s inner-west.
The Bread & Butter Project retail concession store has opened in the Erskineville Woolworths Metro Park store, and is the first time Woolworths Metro has outsourced its bakery operations to a third party.
As part of the agreement, The Bread & Butter Project will operate its own bakery withing the store and provide the labour and artisan sourdough baking expertise, while Woolworths Metro will fit out the concession store and provide bakery equipment.
“It goes without saying that we are incredibly excited to be opening our first concession store with Woolworths Metro, as it gives us the opportunity to bring our delicious bread to a wider audience, starting in Erskineville,” said The Bread & Butter Project chairperson Cindy Carpenter.
“At the same time, we are extremely grateful for Woolworths’ ongoing support throughout what has been a very tough year for small businesses around the country.
“Without this support, we would have been in a very difficult position, but now we are looking at a positive future and exploring further growth opportunities into 2021.”
The partnership was first launched in April and has since seen 25 Woolworths Metro stores across Sydney supplied with sourdough breads from The Bread & Butter Project’s Marrickville bakery.
100 per cent of profits that The Bread & Butter Project generates from the concession store go to training programs and employment pathways for refugees and people seeking asylum.
The expansion is also set to provide future training and employment opportunities for trainees, as well as a TAFE Certificate II in Food Processing and intensive training in English and numeracy.
Around 45 professional artisan bakers are now employed in Australia’s hospitality industry as part of the program, and has capacity to take up 30 new trainees a year.
