Transport partnership with an important French food retail brand that’s on a roll !

Since the summer of 2022, Viaposte has been proud to count one of the largest French food retailers among its long list of partners. With over 2,000 points of sale in France alone, this unrivalled national food retailer also benefits from a large international presence. 

To meet the demands of the sector and guarantee its customers a flawless service, the brand turned to Viaposte. Discover the highlights of this close collaboration !

The origins of the transport deal

To understand Viaposte’s partnership with this undisputed retail market leader, let us take a step back in time.

The promising beginnings of a perfect partnership

It all began shortly before the summer of 2022, when the retailer’s forecasts predicted a sharp rise in sales volumes and logistics needs. It presented the ideal opportunity for Viaposte to demonstrate its capacity in providing an ad hoc, large-scale transport solution, in a season punctuated by numerous calendar events, bank holidays, long weekends, and traffic constraints.

A first mission: impossible? Nicolas Buart, Viaposte Transport Sales Manager, tells us in a few lines. 

“Beyond the success of the full coverage of this exceptional demand, named Project Help, an certain chemistry was born between the two companies, and history was written.”

A mutual understanding: the foundation of a trusted partnership

At the beginning, Viaposte and the large retailer were complete strangers to each other. Little could they imagine that they would develop such an enriching collaboration together. It was only after a number of exchanges that a reciprocal understanding emerged, revealing a common reflection and shared path ahead.

Viaposte’s ADR capabilities

Viaposte immediately showed its strength in reacting to another one of the customer’s challenges, that of transport of dangerous goods.

Viaposte therefore rose to the challenge of full-truck transport of dangerous goods, in compliance with the ADR United Nations Treaty on the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road.

This treaty sets certain standards that must be met to guarantee safety in the transport of hazardous materials. Standards that were uncompromisingly met by Viaposte, who ended up turning a one-off into a long-term partnership.

Exceptional services under a solid, lasting partnership

Once it had successfully completed its ad hoc missions, Viaposte naturally positioned itself in the call for tenders launched by the retail company in January 2024. This important tender was in response to an increasing demand for goods transport from the brand’s own suppliers.

Viaposte won the tender for both a major French region and a bordering country.

In particular, the scope of action included:

• Picking up palletized goods from over 60 different suppliers
• Directing them through a Viaposte logistics platform to destination warehouses
• Delivering to almost 40 warehouses, while guaranteeing optimal conditions for food products

This large-scale mission would involve the handling a great number of pallets and daily trips! And demanded a great synergy of logistics and transport, two of Viaposte’s tried and tested areas of expertise !

Consolidation and development of the transport partnership

With the call for tenders in the bag, a lot still remained to be done.

Creation of a dedicated platform to guarantee success

Winning the tender was the start of a long task of questioning processes and developing the tracking of goods. A new manner of working had to be found for both parties.

The first step, on Viaposte’s side, was to establish a dedicated regional transport centre, and a fully customized digital portal. 

Nicolas Buart affirms, “In less than a few months, we created a tailor-made platform allowing the customer to track pick-ups, trips, and deliveries.” While the creation of a portal was anticipated in the tender, Viaposte demonstrated its capacity to rise above expectations by building a tracking tool in record time offering: 

• The secure exchange of documents
• Real-time goods tracking
• Reporting to back up all commitments

This new portal was also designed to comply with current sector standards, with a special focus on customer satisfaction. The stakes were certainly high, in having to guarantee deliveries to customer sites in 2 to 3 days, according to tight schedules and timetables. And therefore providing a digital service that provides full transparency throughout the different delivery stages came as a real bonus!

The integration of further features is also planned, including billing data, to bring together the maximum amount of information.

Viaposte and responsible transport

The decarbonisation of transport is one of the commitments most rooted in Viaposte’s DNA. In each of its transport missions, the company incorporates increasingly responsible practices, particularly regarding the use of green energy in its delivery trucks.

These practices and values are also shared, promoted and valued by our retail partner, representing another point of agreement between our two companies.

The rest is being written today

In January 2025, Viaposte won a new call for tenders to cover new French regions, again with the aim of satisfying an increasing transport demand.

But the story is not about to stop there. Viaposte sees great possibilities of integrating a third branch of services, in addition to logistics and transport, that of maintenance.

Nicolas Buart explains, “Our consolidated knowledge of all kinds of industrial machinery makes us as a credible player for maintenance missions. Our staff are well-trained and reactive in providing diagnostic and repair services.”

This new offering, which could see the light of day in the months or years to come, would be a great opportunity for Viaposte to provide end-to-end support through transport services, logistics via its own platforms, goods flow tracking via a tailored digital portal, and industrial maintenance.