Premier Inn has partnered with humanitarian aid charity Hope and Aid Direct to donate and convoy up to 2,000 mattresses to support people impacted by the war in Ukraine.
The partnership, which supports Premier Inn’s Force for Good sustainability strategy, follows 50,000 duvet and pillow sets already donated to those affected by events in Turkey as well as Ukraine plus a £500,000 commitment by parent company Whitbread to the Disasters Emergency Committee.
The project was developed by supply chain manager Nathan Philip, who identified an opportunity to align Premier Inn’s bed replacement scheme with the firm’s Force for Good sustainability strategy. As part of the project many of Premier Inn’s suppliers were harnessed to donate, store and deliver the items ahead of donation to shelters.
Philip said: “When Ukraine was invaded, we were going through our bedding replacement programme, upgrading tens of thousands of duvets and pillows – as well as all of the mattresses across our hotels. While the mattresses were at the end of their commercial life, they weren’t at the end of their useful life, so we identified an opportunity to donate them to people displaced by the war.”
To ensure successful delivery, Premier Inn, in partnership with Hope and Aid Direct and Ukraine-based charitable partner Ukraine on Palms worked closely to surmount the many logistical challenges associated with donating large items to a war zone.
Charles Storer MBE, head of operations, Hope and Aid Direct, said: “Hope and Aid is a bridge between corporates and charities – we take aid, not sides. But when it comes to giving aid, many companies don’t know where to start as humanitarian aid logistics aren’t as simple as they seem.”
The first convoy of Hope and Aid Direct trucks filled with the mattresses left for Ukraine led by Storer and supported by a team of volunteers during the summer with stops made to pick up more items at Premier Inn hotels in Germany. Deliveries will continue throughout 2024.
Storer added: “Most of our relationships with businesses are through third party organisations, but we have a unique relationship with Premier Inn in that we work directly with them to form a plan of action to quickly get those things where they need to be. We started out with the duvets and pillow sets, and now the mattresses are a very welcome continuation of our partnership, which will help people in unimaginable circumstances get a better night’s sleep. I implore other companies to follow Whitbread’s lead.”