First she did good, then she did well - Willie Cam Nimmons

First She Did Good, Then She Did Well

The domestic textile industry is facing hard times these days, but Willie Cam Nimmons, founder and president of Infinite Creations, Inc., in Bamberg, S.C., is finding nothing but prosperity.

Ten years ago, Nimmons was a college math teacher. Today, she is a defense contractor and a major producer of industrial textiles.

Last year, her firm won a $1.6 million federal contract, one of the largest ever awarded to a South Carolinian, to produce 7.4 million polypropylene sand-bags for the Defense General Supply Center in Richmond.

It was not the first defense contract for Infinite Creations. The company has made thousands of basic black purses for women in the military and also makes pockets to hold ammunition clips for M-16 rifles and for 9-mm Beretta pistols.

"I never imagined anything of this scope when I started,' says Nimmons. "Sometimes I just want to pinch myself to see if it is all real.'

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, Nimmons taught math in South Carolina public schools and at Voorhees College, in Denmark, S.C. She was active in local church, civic and educational affairs.

Nimmons' business evolved out of her job as a part-time social worker. She worried about the local unemployment situation and decided to do something about it.

"I noticed a lot of idle people about town,' she says. "Many were on welfare, but most looked like they could work. So I decided to investigate.'

Nimmons began a nonprofit company, Quilting Co-op, which made stuffed animals and quilts from scraps of cloth. The products were sold on the streets of Bamberg, but Nimmons found many buyers reluctant to purchase from a nonprofit group. "I looked at the alternatives and came to a conclusion that I should start a profit-making business and try and make a go of it.'

The decision to leave the security of a teaching career was a difficult one. Even her husband and children advised against it. "I thought a long time before I got nerve to follow my own instinct,' Nimmons says. "But finally I said to myself, "I'm just going to have to take a chance. I need to do something more challenging.''

When she incorporated Infinite Creations, Nimmons made the switch from stuffed animals to such items as ladies' handbags, garment bags and duffel bags.

Operating out of a building that previously housed a supermarket, the company landed national contracts with retailers that included F.W. Woolworth and K mart.

But it was the late '70s, and the domestic textile industry was going into a downturn. Nimmons' retail customers began to turn away from the products of Infinite Creations to buy cheaper foreign products instead.

"I could see disaster coming,' Nimmons recalls. "I knew that if something was not done quickly, my company would go under.' But unlike many bigger firms that were not able to adjust to the import crisis, Nimmons' company was small and flexible.

Reading financial journals, Nimmons noticed Department of Defense ads offering free workshops on how minority businesses could obtain military contracts. "So I started going to those workshops,' she says. "When I think back, it did seem like a lot of work and a lot of red tape. I almost didn't go. But I saw the Defense Department was buying a lot of items. I knew my company could produce a lot of them with some training.'

She was right. In the spring of 1986, Nimmons and her work force of 35 moved into a new, 32,000-square-foot plant in Bamberg County Industrial Park. Employment doubled soon after that, and the company now operates out of the same plant with 120 workers.

Sales have grown from $44,000 in 1977 to $2 million last year. While Infinite Creations' earlier defense contracts were granted under minority setaside programs, 75 percent of current contracts were obtained through open bidding.

In October, 1986, the Department of Commerce named Nimmons National Minority Entrepreneur of the Year.

Infinite Creations has become a family affair. While Nimmons oversees the company as president, a son works as chief engineer, and a daughter handles production and personnel. A younger son, who is in college studying industrial engineering, plans to join the business after graduation.

"Having family members involved in the business is an advantage,' Nimmons says. "We talk all the time. They give my brain a rest by helping, planning and providing me with a lot of good ideas.'

Photo: Former schoolteacher Willie Cam Nimmons holds a firefighter's field pack that her company, Infinite Creations, makes for the Federal Supply Service. It is just one of many items the Bamberg, S.C., company produces under government contract.

COPYRIGHT 1987 U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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