Project Paddington works with schoolchildren and UK businesses to donate soft toys to children affected by the ongoing refugee crisis.

Black Friday 2015 is one of most highly anticipated events in the retail industry’s long and illustrious history, and is set to become the UK’s first-ever £1bn online shopping day. While millions of consumers busily browse online in order to bag a bargain, retailers and their delivery partners will be working extremely hard to process and ship the additional volumes in an efficient and effective manner.

Last year, we successfully handled 3.7 million parcels over the course of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, representing a rise of 49% on 2013. This weekend we are forecasting at least another 30% growth in volumes. Over the coming days, and indeed weeks, we will continue to utilise our extensive transport network to unite online shoppers with their purchases.

However, I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you how our fleet made a special delivery of a different kind just last week, playing a key role in a heart-warming initiative to deliver teddy bears to deprived refugee children. We lent our support to Project Paddington by transporting 25,000 soft toys across the UK ahead of onward distribution overseas.

Children helping children

Beginning in Sheffield, Project Paddington was set up to rally schoolchildren to send a teddy, a drawing of themselves and a short note to a child affected by the ongoing refugee crisis. In a little over two months, thousands of UK children and their families have got involved and donated their teddies. Meanwhile, the Project Paddington team has also raised tens of thousands of pounds through teddy bears’ picnics, teddy-to-school days, onesie days and cake sales – with all proceeds being paid into Tearfund’s Refugee Crisis Fund.

In partnership with our client Boden, we transported 104 pallets, containing more than 25,000 much-loved teddies, from two of Travis Perkins’ warehouses in Northampton and Warrington, to a distribution centre operated by Mission & Relief Logistics in Kent. We are pleased to hear that the soft toys are now on their way to displaced children across the Middle East, and everybody at Hermes is extremely proud to support such a warm and wonderful campaign.

“We are enjoying seeing the wonderful creativity of Team Project Paddington as new groups find innovative, bear-related ways to show their support for refugee children and families”

Joy French

Commenting on the initiative, Joy French, a trainee vicar who launched Project Paddington, told us: “We are enjoying seeing the wonderful creativity of Team Project Paddington as new groups find innovative, bear-related ways to show their support for refugee children and families. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Hermes for its fantastic help transporting thousands of teddies!”

As our recent research revealed, more than a third of UK shoppers will take advantage of the latest Black Friday deals to complete all of their Christmas shopping. For many people, the act of gift giving is their favourite part of the festive season, but it is important to spare a thought at this time for those less fortunate than ourselves. I would like to thank Project Paddington for providing our team with the opportunity to contribute to this fantastic campaign.

For more information about Project Paddington, visit: www.projectpaddington.com

  • Martijn de Lange is chief operating officer at Hermes