Pinoy fastfood chain wins UPS Int'l award

Binalot Fiesta Foods wrapped up the once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Prize in the worldwide 2007 UPS Out-of-the-Box Small Business Contest commemorating United Parcel Service's (UPS) 100th year of existence.

The special award honors Binalot as it "best exemplifies the end-to-end service theme of UPS's Centennial Celebration". The award came with not only a $10,000 cash prize but the distinction that the next winner will have to wait another 100 years to win the same award.

The UPS contest is open to small business entities with 2006 business revenues between $250,000 to $10.0 million. For the special Centennial Prize, there was only one criterion: demonstrated commitment to and delivery of customer service that best exemplifies end-to-end service.

In a letter to Mr. Rommel Juan, Binalot president, Jonel Guittap of UPS-Delbros International Express Ltd. said that "what makes this recognition extra special for the Philippines is that you're the only Asian entry to win a prize in the contest and the first Philippine company to do so." Fact is, Binalot is not only the first Pinoy winner but also the first Asian Pacific winner of this prestigious award. To win, it had to beat other small business entities from the entire USA, Canada, Mexico, Singapore and China. No small feat indeed for a small and medium enterprise (SME) that started from the lowly banana leaf.

Rommel Juan

Rommel said that Binalot was chosen for its Dangal at Hanapbuhay Para sa Nayon (Dahon) Program, conceived as an end-to-end solution of sourcing its raw materials directly from farmer communities, specifically the banana leaves which it uses for wrapping its famed rice meals. "It is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program that takes care of the banana leaf as it travels from the trunk to the dining table of our outlet, truly an end-to-end process. Along the way, men & women in the community are given a steady source of income, family ties are preserved, a place of worship gets renovated, the elderly are taken care of, a day care center is made more comfortable, the environment gets protected, research for other sources of livelihood gets funded and on the whole, a community gets developed in more ways than one", he continues. Your browser may not support display of this image.

Besides helping the communities that grow the banana leaves get more value for their crop, Binalot has also improved its supply chain costs by eliminating any incremental cost of bringing the banana leaves from the farm to the market. It also got better control of the QCD (quality, cost and delivery) aspects of the material.

Rommel adds that "this activity makes it a win-win situation for our business and its suppliers. Dahon being a good model for a CSR program for an SME, we plan to use the award money to formally establish the Binalot Foundation, increase funding for this CSR program and other related activities, such as developing other banana-based products that the farmers and their families can produce and Binalot and other like-minded SMEs can sell. This indeed is a good case of doing well in business and doing good for others in return".

He stresses that the Binalot DAHON Program shatters the myth that CSR is the exclusive domain of big corporations and multinational companies, they who have the money to fund initiatives that do not have a direct and immediate impact on the company's profitability.

"In Binalot's case, our CSR concept is simple: we use the banana leaf as the rallying point for a start-up program in a community and then later, evolve into other projects to help develop the community, provide alternate sources of livelihood and ultimately, help the beneficiaries turn a new leaf. All that one needs is the willingness to help and more importantly, the desire to give back to the community whatever blessings God has bestowed upon you and your company." Your browser may not support display of this image.

He points out that a cursory look at the list of previous winners does indeed indicate that they are not the big boys of the industry at all. A fashion jeweler designed and produced pins to support social causes, such as poverty and homelessness, contributing todate some $22.0 million to the cause. Another winner developed the Money Savvy Pig, a piggy bank that aimed to teach children good financial management at an early age. Each piggy bank has four slots: save, spend, invest and donate. Still another winner found a need and filled it. He identified strategies and sold products to make the house more dementia-friendly. The result: The Alzheimer's Store.

Rommel will receive the special prize at the Georgia Aquarum in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on November 13, 2007 during a Small Business Forum where an awards presentation will be held in commemoration of UPS's Centennial Year.