Hanke

Born and raised in the small town of Binalonan, Pangasinan, Erlinda Labitoria, used to be a housewife until in 2003 she got introduced by her aunt to the production of chips (or crisps). Erlinda started out as a small scale chips producer, like many of her town’s folk, selling banana chips within the town. Her husband was at that time earning a minimum wage as a common laborer and with 4 kids to raise, the couple needed to increase their earnings. Thus, they decided to get serious with the chip business. Six years later they decided to further improve their business by formally registering it with the Government and adopting the name “Crunchies”.

Nowadays, Erlinda is focused on the production of banana chips, camote (sweet potatoe) chips and ube (taro) chips while her husband does the marketing and delivery to their customers. They get their raw materials from nearby towns in the Province, thus helping other industries as well.
After their start, selling the chips within their own town, they are now serving supermarkets and customers in 4 cities and 22 towns in the province of Pangasinan. Crunchies now employs 30 men and women, some of whom are out of school youth.

The loan from Lendahand’s partner NPFC, will be used by the company to fund orders for their new export market in Korea. The Korean market opened up for Crunchies when a Korean national tasted Erlinda’s chips and was so overwhelmed with its taste that he offered to market the product in his country.

With a healthy monthly turnover, a new export market to be served and the financial partnership with NPFC, Erlinda sees a bright future with further growth, more customers and more employment for people in her town.

N.B. this project has been split into 2 equal parts; this is the second tranche (B)