Sweet as honey: how this Lebanese startup founded a thriving business

In the middle of Beirut’s Achrafieh area is a small boutique with rows and rows of honey jars stacked on top each other. The boutique is called L’Atelier du Miel, also the name of a team of entrepreneurs determined to put Lebanese honey on the map.

Ralph Bou Nassif and his cofounders, brother Marc Antoine and long-time friend Rabih Traboulsi, currently manage about 1,000 beehives locally, which they move all across Lebanon, from Akkar, in the north to Saida in the South.

Their hives produce around 15 tons of honey annually, making L’Atelier du Miel one of the largest local producers of Lebanon, and possibly the most diverse too.

“We offer more than 30 different kinds of honey to our customers,” said Bou Nassif. “We’re all about giving them this unique honey experience in our boutique.”

The story

The story behind L’Atelier du Miel began with just one beehive in 2011. The three founders had office jobs at the time (Bou Nassif was a consultant for Booz & Company in Beirut).

“We wanted to learn a craft in nature,” Bou Nassif said.

After experimenting with the first beehive in 2011, the trio bought 30 beehives for about $6,000.

Original article by Maysaa Ajjan

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Sweet as honey: how this Lebanese startup founded a thriving business