La Petite Reine

Non Profit ID card: present your project/organisation/campaign

Questions answered by Fabien de Castilla, Development Director, Ares.

– Where are you based? We are based in Paris, but we also have branches in Lyon, Bordeaux, Rouen and Dijon (plus a franchise in Geneva).

– What are you called? La Petite Reine (which is an old French expression for bike).

– What are you doing and why? We provide a parcel delivery service using Cargocycle (a three wheeled bicycle equipped with a large trunk). Our deliverymen are employed through a job insertion programme (we help people who have been excluded from the job market). Why? First because we think you can make deliveries without using polluting cars (and it works…). Second, because the deliveryman profession is a true reintegration springboard through developing autonomy and sense of responsibility.

– Do you have a website/email? www.lapetitereine.com and www.ares-association.fr (The Ares website is for the social business group La Petite Reine belongs to – which is 100% non profit).

– What makes you so special? It is a simple, yet innovative social business that combines environment, human resources and economy at the same time.

 

The turning point

– How did you start? La Petite Reine was founded in 2001. It joined Ares Group in 2009, on a simple issue: delivery trucks are oversized for cities and generate traffic jams and pollution.

– What keeps you going every day? Social and ecological impact, as well as quality of human relations.

– Who is your target? People in great difficulty (homeless, differently abled people, troubled youth, and so on). Our objective is to prove that each person, whatever his situation may be, is able to rebuild his own life and to restore his dignity by taking part to social and economic life.

– How are you financed? Mostly through our turnover (about 80%).

 

The challenge

– A proud moment? To be recognized by logistics expertise as a true and efficient solution. We also look forward to achieving more than profit.

– A problem you face? Economic competition in the logistics sector which implies low margins, which make development harder.

– Your personal motto when things get hard? What you do is useful! You don’t wake up early every morning for nothing…

– Another cool project/organisation/campaign you would like to recommend? Vélobar, a new project of take-away food on bicycle.Conceived by three young entrepreneurs, Vélobar has been launched in July 2010 on Paris beaches. It is set every day on the banks of the basin of la Villette and offers, on a white tricycle, fuit juices, salads, fresh fruit and cookies from the fair trade. Besides refreshing the clients, the aim of Vélobar is to grow through a solidary franchised system of micro enterprises for the unemployed. This is their web site:

http://videos.leparisien.fr/video/iLyROoaf8AnK.html

 

www.lapetitereine.com; www.ares-association.fr

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