The project

Israel Romano is a father of one. Rael, as his friends call him, had worked as a seaman for six years at a cruise line where he fell in love. He was fortunate enough to marry this girl, who has a remarkable passion for coffee. While the couple worked for the cruise liner, they noticed that there was a high demand for coffee by a lot of types of people. They therefore made a plan in starting a coffee shop when their contract ended to pursue their passion for the energy-providing beverage.

In 2009, Rael and his wife opened their first coffee shop called "RedBuck's Coffee Shakes", named after the combination of Rael's favorite color "red" and "buck", which refers to money. RedBuck's Coffee Shakes had their first franchise license in 2011 and have grown impressively since. There are currently twenty outlets situated around malls and supermarkets in Luzon and Cebu. His brother works as franchise manager and his wife in marketing and human resources. All the RedBuck's Coffee Shakes stores employ 44 people in total. Some of their employees have college degrees while others are secondary level schooled. RedBuck's Coffee Shakes gives away free trips to Hong Kong as a reward for their best performing employees and pays above minimum wages with free meals for everyone. RedBuck's Coffee Shakes also sponsors a food program for the local underprivileged and donates to the 700 Club.

Rael is an ambitious man, as he desires to grow to 100 RedBuck's Coffee Shakes outlets in 2016. Lendahand partner and its partner NPFC supports RedBuck's Coffee Shakes in acquiring additional working capital to boost the production, support their franchise stores, and to achieve Rael’s future goals. The loan will be repaid in 12 months.