Article from L’Est Républicain: “These companies that are embracing solidarity”
April 1, 2026, Stéphane Mansuy
The two men did not know each other, but they quickly hit it off. Pascal Blaise, director of the Viaposte logistics center, a subsidiary of Groupe La Poste located in the Gondreville Fontenoy area, and Claude Guillemot, a member of the Toul branch of the Red Cross, have nevertheless recently “done business” together.
The former found himself with a substantial stock of promotional kits: toiletry bags containing three hair care products, along with T shirts and scarves. These items were provided by one of his main clients, Eleven Australia, a brand specializing in body and hair care.
2,200 toiletry bags and 1,350 T shirts and scarves
Viaposte handles the shipment of goods on behalf of this client, based in Copenhagen, across France and twenty seven other countries. As the brand updated its packaging, these items became obsolete. Rather than being discarded or added back into inventory, the manufacturer asked Pascal Blaise to donate them to a charitable organization.
The first organization that came to mind, “given its reputation,” was the French Red Cross (Croix-Rouge). Claude Guillemot, along with another volunteer, Sophie Laurain, who came with her family, then collected the goods from the logistics hub warehouse. Three round trips were required to transport the boxes to the French Red Cross headquarters in Toul.
This shipment of 2,200 toiletry bags and 1,350 T shirts and scarves will be distributed free of charge to beneficiaries of the organization, whether they visit the social grocery store, go to the furniture warehouse in Toul, or attend food distribution sessions organized by the food bank in one of the storage facilities located behind Quai de la Glacière. The logistics center director will also take part in one of these distributions on April 14.
He will use this opportunity to hand over the result of a clothing drive initiated by the fifty employees at the site he manages. For them, it is another way to support the families assisted by the Red Cross.
Vape customers funding projects
In the Espace K area, another company is also placing its bets on solidarity: Alterboutique. Founded in 2014 in Toul, the company sells accessories and refill products for electronic cigarettes through its brand’s online store, Oliquide.
The added value envisioned by its founders, Francis Beurrier and Jean Marc Humbert, both with backgrounds in the non profit sector, is to combine business growth with support for community and charitable projects, mainly at the local level, such as the JDM festival, the MJC in Toul and various theatre companies.
With each order, 2.5 percent of the total amount is set aside. Customers can then allocate these funds to support a project of their choice listed in the solidarity section of the website. Twenty two projects are currently available.
In 2025, Alterboutique distributed €28,482 collected from orders placed by 2,074 customers. Since the launch of this initiative, a total of €135,000 has been redistributed.
The French Red Cross (Croix-Rouge) in Toul received items whose packaging had become obsolete.
