Binalot unwrapped

Juan

It all started a little over 20 years ago. Tired of the usual fast food offerings consisting of the usual burgers, fries, siopao and siomai, a group of yuppies decided to introduce a Filipino fast food with a twist.

Instead of using styrofoam packs and disposables, they offered native delicacies in biodegradable, eco-friendly and very natural banana leaves. The innovation worked as customers loved the idea of Filipino rice meals packed in banana leaves. Binalot was born.

It started as a pure food delivery concept and was branded the darling of the delivery industry by Delivery Magazine in 1998. Kiosks started to sprout in 2000 and, due to customer demand, Binalot opened its first dine-in restaurant in 2002. Two years later, the first franchise was granted and the food concept never looked back since then.

However, the year 2006 saw the devastation of typhoon Milenyo and Binalot found it difficult to source its banana leaves. But without losing its spirit, the innovative young brand turned the crisis into an opportunity by setting up its own corporate social responsibility (CSR) program called Dahon (Dangal at Hanapbuhay Para sa Nayon).

Binalot adopted a community of banana farmers in Laguna and secured a steady and reliable source of banana leaves, in the process also giving the families their livelihood.

Dahon was later recognized for being a novel idea of a sustainable CSR despite Binalot being a small company. It got the once-in-a-lifetime UPS Centennial Award, the Intel AIM Corporate Social Responsibility Award and the BID Network CSR Award.

Binalot began introducing innovation after innovation, such as the use of electric bikes for delivery and a food van for mobile activities.

In 2015, Binalot ventured overseas with the opening of an outlet in Dubai, UAE to cater to the growing Pinoy population there.

This year, the entrepreneur behind Binalot, Rommel T. Juan, its president, is a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

“We are very proud that our simple efforts as a small enterprise are beginning to be recognized. Yet it is also ironic since we are only doing what we love, paying forward to those who have helped us and will continue to help us,” says Juan. “We consider the nomination a validation of our passion and dedication toward our customers and all our stakeholders. This will only make us strive even harder in the future.”