By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–In business, it pays to go green, to embrace one’s roots, and to engage small communities.

Ask the owner of Binalot, a fast-food chain famous for its low-budget Pinoy meals wrapped in banana leaves harvested in a poor farmers’ community in Laguna, a neighboring province of Metro Manila.

As it continues to make good business through its 35 outlets, mostly inside malls in Metro Manila, the young company is starting to gain international recognition.

Out of the box

United Parcel Service (UPS) has named Binalot the recipient of a $10, 000 special prize for a small business exemplifying “end-to-end customer service,” the UPS theme for its centennial celebration this year.

In the UPS “Out of the Box” Small Business Contest, which was opened to the Philippines this year, Binalot bested entries from China, Singapore and other countries in the Asia Pacific. It was the first Filipino company to win the prize.

“The UPS prize was a gift from God,” Rommel T. Juan, president of Binalot Fiesta Foods Inc., said in an interview. “We didn’t know it was gonna come. We didn’t expect to win the prize.”

Dahon program

He joined the online contest months ago, and had all but forgotten about it until he got a call from UPS. And he believed its use of banana leaf from a poor community clinched the prize for Binalot.

“Why did we win? Because of the Dahon program. It’s end to end. We get it directly from the farmers, bring them to the commissary, deliver them to franchisees, and the end customers,” said the 35-year-old marketing management graduate from De la Salle University.

Besides, helping the poor proved to be a “good karma,” he added. Rommel left Monday for the United States to receive the prize in Atlanta, Georgia, where UPS is based.

Since its small delivery operations in Makati City began in 1996, Binalot has served the meals in banana leaves harvested from different communities.

Typhoon ‘Milenyo’

But it was only in January that Binalot decided to get its supply from a community of poor banana farmers at the foot of a mountain in Laguna as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

“When Typhoon ‘Milenyo’ struck [in September 2006], it wiped out our regular supply of banana leaves. So we were forced to source somewhere else,” Juan said.

Soon after, Binalot found a viable source in a banana plantation in Laguna, and developed a CSR program, “Dangal at Hanapbuhay para sa Nayon” (Dahon) or leaf, to help farmers earn income right in their own backyard.

Proper harvesting

Binalot personnel trained the farmers from 29 families on proper harvesting, trimming and sanitation, equipped them with tools, and set up a modest workplace for them.

So each day, the men would head for the clumps of banana trees at dawn to cut leaves, and haul these by horse to the workplace where their wives would clean and trim them according to Binalot’s specifications.

The company buys banana leaves at P60 to P70 per bundle from the farmers thrice a week, providing a regular livelihood for them, weaning them off idleness and boosting their confidence.

“The men are earning P300 a day and the women, P200,” Juan said. “Just imagine how a crisis (damage wrought by Milenyo on Binalot’s supply) turned into something good.”

Until Binalot came into the picture, most of the farmers earned income by selling their banana leaves to small traders at low rates, and mainly subsisted on remittances from children working abroad.

Less trash

The leaves also meant less trash for the company.

By Juan’s reckoning, the company has set itself apart from the rest, not only because of its “eco-friendly” packaging and “truly Pinoy” meals, but also because of its Dahon program.

“This CSR is one program that our whole organization is proud of. We are 35 outlet-strong. We are a truly Pinoy fast food, but it’s different when you’re able to help others,” he said.

Through this program, Binalot shattered the misconception that only corporate giants could come up with a good CSR program. “They always thought it was the domain of Ayala, of Shell and of big companies. We’re a testament that it’s not,” he said.

After initially working for the family-owned MD Juan, which exports jeep bodies and parts, Juan and his older brother decided to start their own food business in 1996.

And their childhood memories of family outings helped shape it.

Binalot begins

In one of their talks, he told his brother: “Do you remember when we used to go to Alfonso, Cavite? [We had a farm there with a river in the back. We’d go there on weekends. My mom would wrap our food in banana leaves] So I told him, the food was more delicious that way. Why not offer it in Makati?”

Thus began Binalot (which means wrapped).

After tapping Aileen Anastacio, a chef-friend of the Juans’, to do the cooking for which she got good reviews, the brothers started delivering home-cooked Filipino favorites in banana leaves to offices from their condominium unit in Salcedo Village in Makati.

“Since it was residential, not a commercial area, we didn’t tell people where we were based. When customers called to ask, we’d just tell them we’re in Makati. But neighbors would find out and come knocking,” the younger brother said.

There came a time when the Juan brothers had to move out when the other tenants started complaining of the smell of adobo (meat dish). But they soon found spaces in Greenbelt mall and on Jupiter Street.

The initial offerings were rice topped with Filipino favorites adobo, tapa (cured meat), bangus (milkfish), tocino and longanisa, garnished with pickles, salted egg and tomato.

Financial crisis

Months after the financial crisis hit Asia in 1997, the Juan brothers thought of closing shop after their customers started bringing home-cooked lunch to work. Delivery sales dropped sharply.

Then came an offer from Shangri-La mall in Mandaluyong City that it had a space for Binalot in its food court.

“Our mini-board met, and I said ‘Let’s go for broke,’” Juan recalled. “When we opened in Shangri-La [in 1998], it was an instant hit. We were alive again. We realized the sale was constant unlike in delivery service.”

Exponential growth

After gaining confidence, Binalot opened more outlets in other malls, mostly from its annual earnings, and hired more people to run the growing business. In 2003, it went into franchising.

“That’s when we started to grow exponentially,” Juan said.

Over the years, Binalot’s menu has evolved, too. It now serves varieties like the funny-sounding Tapa Rap Sarap, Bistek Walastik, Bopisticated, Pride Tilapia, Sisig na Makisig, My Dinuguan & Only, and Love Me Tenderloin Tips in all its outlets.

With the $10, 000 prize, Juan and his partners plan to set up a foundation or a social enterprise, and develop other banana products, like chips and cakes.

“If we have things we can develop, we’ll start with them (farmers),” he said. “What we want to develop is an industry for them that’s related to our business.”