A small firm’s survival story may be Lebanon’s 2020 silver lining

Economic collapse, COVID and a port explosion tested Styro 3D this year, but its path out of crises could signal a broader transformation is finally afoot.

Tarek Chehab describes his 3D design factory as a “place where you can make pretty much anything — a ‘Lala-land’ for creative types like architects and product designers.”

In the past, Styro 3D, named after the versatile styrofoam used in most of its products, mainly made “decorations, wedding installations, window displays, exhibitions and movie sets — things like a Godzilla, a big rock”, Chehab said.

But his clientele has all-but disappeared in a turbulent year of massive anti-government protests, a near-total economic collapse and one of the worlds largest non-nuclear explosions, which killed 200 people and wrecked large parts of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

The economic crisis and post-blast devastation were greatly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which officials have responded to with a number of lockdowns and ever-changing regulations that have further choked businesses.

To survive, a company that brands itself as “3Defying your ideas” has had to rapidly adapt.

“Don’t ask me where we got the courage to go on,” Chehab told Al Jazeera during an interview at his large factory on the eastern outskirts of Beirut.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA