Rommel T. Juan, Founder and CEO of Binalot Fiesta Foods, Inc., is having a good year. In this month alone, his company bagged a Best Homegrown Franchise Award from Entrepreneur Magazine, opened a new branch in Eastwood Cybermall, and as its CEO, was able to “spread the gospel of Binalot” in major business seminars in and outside Manila.

Just what is this “gospel”? It’s merging sound business practices with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and sustainability, that’s what. In Binalot’s case, it’s also promoting Filipino culture, values, and humor.

“We want to be the best the Philippines can offer; we want it represented in our stores,” says Juan. On the surface, you can see it immediately: murals with families enjoying meals together, a game of piko (hopscotch) drawn on the floor, and corny meal names like “You Bet Pinakbet,” “Sinigang With a Bang,” and “Pride Tilapia.” Juan shrugs. “Corny talaga ako, noong college pa. ‘Yang mga ‘what’s the matter peanut butter?’ Pinoy lang makakakuha nyan (I’ve always been corny, even back in college. Only Filipinos can get that kind of humor).”

The lofty ambitions of Binalot being “the no. one Filipino fastfood” started humbly, however. Rommel Juan, 38, just wanted to “have fun”.

Learning The Ropes

After graduation and racking up work experience for a couple of big name automotive companies (one of the family businesses is producing wrangler-type jeeps), Juan worked for his father. Realizing he had enough free time for other ventures, he invited his brother Raffy to put up Binalot.

“Remember when we were young, how mom used to wrap our lunch in banana leaves?” he asked Raffy, jogging memories of weekend trips to the family’s small farm in Alfonso, Cavite. “So there.

Binalot (“wrapped”). But we didn’t dive into it right away. We researched, sold the products to our friends, gave out survey sheets and asked them what they thought.” The current red egg and tomato combination, for example, used to just be one hard-boiled egg. “People said they preferred that.”

After going through the initial phases of the business (see milestones), Binalot opened for franchising in 2004. “We started with almost nothing,” Juan says. “We had five investors who gave P10,000 each, and we just rolled it. By the time we started franchising, I realized we already had 50 people on our payroll. It wasn’t just for fun and a creative outlet anymore. People depended on us for a living.

“I also realized that with franchising, the business became relationship-based. May ibang tao na makikialam sa brand mo (other people already had a say in your brand), so I had to set up middle management, a system. So I invested in people—a marketing manager, human resources manager, finance consultant. It ceased to be a mom-and-pop shop. When we started, I did everything. But business is like that: you have to graduate from (a certain level) and replicate yourself and hire professionals to help you.”

Six years hence, Binalot will be opening a branch soon in Legazpi, Albay, “our farthest so far, and we’re also looking at abroad. The market is still growing,” says Juan. “You just have to find your niche. Ang dami nang players—but people love our food.

Pound for pound, you get better value for money.”

Going Green

There was another level to hurdle after entering the world of franchising, one which Juan committed himself to ever since his aunt—Figaro founder and environmentally-conscious entrepreneur Pacita Juan—introduced him to the practice of CSR.

“I wanted to close our supply chain and get our material directly from the source,” Juan says, “but I was never successful. People I talked to didn’t want to close a deal, or were hesitant…”

Then giant typhoon Milenyo happened in 2006. “All the banana leaves in Luzon were wiped out. We had to import our leaves from the Visayas, and I was selling it to our franchisees while losing money.”

Juan decided to look for his own suppliers. “We found a guy in Nagcarlan, Laguna,” he relates. “You wouldn’t think he could be trusted.” His “contact” looked more like a man given to drink than to manage a community. “But he really stepped up to the plate,” says Juan. “He thought we were placing just one order of 200 bundles of banana leaves. Di nya alam, tuloy-tuloy (he didn’t know that it was an indefinite contract). So he offered to organize his community to supply us with leaves. That’s how we started our initial CSR.”

That led to the DAHON (Dangal At Hanapbuhay para sa Nayon) Program, which won Binalot a Centennial Award and prize of US$10,000 from UPS for its Best “Out-of-the-Box” Small Business Contest in 2007. Soon to be a foundation, DAHON provides 30 families with sustainable livelihoods.

“The men harvest the banana leaves, the women trim and clean them. We also train them to make banana chips and ketchup, which we sell in our stores.” It’s a win-win situation. For example: it used to be that the women made P250 per four hours of trimming and cleaning leaves; now they can finish the job in just an hour and a half.

The DAHON program is being replicated in Calamba, and soon in Zambales. “So we like to say, if you order Binalot, you alleviate poverty one community at a time,” says Juan, “and you’re being environment-friendly too.”

Last year, Binalot saved 1.5 million styropacks from being used. “If you see photos of Ondoy,” Juan notes, “you’ll see that the flooding problem really stemmed from the problem of trash. If what we all use is biodegradable, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Slowly, Juan is phasing out the use of plastic from his stores. “I’d also like to encourage customers to bring their own water bottles. We also want to bank on the unique native packaging we have. Even the construction materials used in the stores should be eco-friendly.”

Also general manager of MD Juan Enterprises, makers of the electronic jeepneys plying Makati, and recently, Quezon City, Juan is also the first in the country to introduce electronic motorcycles for deliveries.

“Us Filipinos, we’re really not that wasteful.” He adds, deadpan: “Just a little more work and we can achieve Avatar status.”