Quentin Bévan, communication manager at Babyloan and Emmanuel met during a report for France channel TV program “La Quotidienne”.
Emmanuel is 30 years old and he lives in Nice. He is a skilful man since he is a pastry chef, a chocolate maker, an ice-cream maker and a confectioner.
Two years ago, Emmanuel opened the cake shop "Sensations” on Boulevard Carnot. His three more popular pastries are Saint-Honoré, Sensations (white chocolate mousse, stewed wild strawberries and coconut) and for the local touch, Menton’s lemon pie.
Five or six months after the opening of the cake shop, Emmanuel and his associate decided to take out a loan because they run out of funds due to works costing more money than what they planned. As his bank refused to grant him a loan, Emmanuel knocked at Créa-Sol’s door, a microfinance institution, located in Southern France and partner of Babyloan.
Babyloan? I think this is astounding! It means a lot to me that people that I didn’t know trusted me… Above all they did it selflessly; it is really a nice gesture!
The impact of microcredit on Emmanuel’s life: thanks to microcredit, Emmanuel has been able to advertise his shop. He created ribbons with the name “Sensation” printed on it, purchased an advertising flag to entice wonderers to stop in front of the shop front and embellished his boxes with small adhesive hearts… to protect his creations with love!
His projects for the future are, firstly to repay his microcredit and then, within three years, he plans to apply for another loan in order to improve his shop. He also wants to develop his range of pastries and sweets.