TWIN (2008 Partner)
Twin is one of the most innovative (and to date unheralded) social enterprise charities in the UK (with £1.009m of revenue in 2006/7) having incubated many of the UK's Fair Trade brands including Cafédirect, The Divine Chocolate Company, AgroFair UK and most recently Liberation. Twin has strong relationships with many developing world producers and invests heavily in strengthening producer organisations, supply chain management, information and knowledge generation to influence policy debates and to increase market awareness amongst producers. Twin's brands, established with very limited investment, are independent and profitable mainstream businesses: for example, Cafédirect, which is the fifth biggest coffee brand in the UK, with an annual turnover of more than £22m. With it successful investments, Twin can lay claim to be pioneering a new form of social enterprise incubation. VPF is structuring a mixed loan/grant agreement with Twin and is planning to work with it on the next phase of its development.