WINNIPEG For 35 years, Acryl Design in Winnipeg made custom parts and fixtures for manufacturers and stores that all changed when the pandemic hit a year ago. “We were sort of out of business, I would say, because all the industries we were supplying they just sort of shut down,” said owner John Wardrope Wardrope said a large customer canceled a major contract and he had to make a gut wrenching decision. “We shut down the system and I actually had to lay everybody off,” he said. Similar to other business owners who were blindsided by the overnight impact of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, Wardrope was forced to adapt.