By Emma Neugebauer
This year started with a misfortune for the Libano family – but the balloon specialists didn’t want to let that get them down.
It was a New Years Eve nightmare. Because a supermarket next door was on fire, her family business “Tigerballon” also burned down completely in the big fire. But now, less than half a year later, they are celebrating the reopening!
For more than three decades, Claudio Libano (49) has been an expert on balloons of all kinds: there are walking balloons, numbers, letters, animals, with LED, print as desired, organic quality, in mini-small or huge, and, and, and. Nine years ago he started his own business with his wife.
The New Year’s spat began when the nearby supermarket on Marienfelder Chaussee caught fire, not even an hour after midnight. Claudio Libano remembers: “My daughter got a text from a friend at 12:50 am. Norma is on fire.”
Your balloon shop is right next door, wall to wall with the discounter. “We live around the corner and ran there. Supermarket on fire, I handed my store key to a fireman. They took out the compressed gas cylinders with helium. I helped get them onto the median.”
And after the fire, the insurance company helped out with 50,000 euros, and the family set about rebuilding as quickly as possible. This time on Schlierbacher Weg, just a few meters from the old shop.
With success. A huge chain of blue and yellow balloons adorns the exterior of the new store. “We’ve been working day and night for this. Balloons can burst. Not our dreams,” says Libano.