Modern technologies like the Internet have revolutionized the way many of us do business, and have opened up many opportunities for new enterprise.
And yet, all of these innovations pale in comparison with the “old-fashioned” values of hard work, fair business, and sheer strength personality.
The Nathan Kimmel Company, started by Nathan Kimmel in 1956, is an prime example of how one family’s hard work, lead by a memorable man with an unwavering philosophy of how to do business, laid the foundation for a company that continues to thrive a half century later.
From the garage of the family home, with a bundle of surplus parachutes purchased from Douglas Aircraft to one of the largest women owned companies in southern California, Nathan’s daughter Carol Kimmel Schary, now president of the company, recalls how it all began.
“This little mom and pop industry started out of our garage. He bought a ‘lot’ (a sealed container) of surplus military parachutes, and he decided he was going to take the webbing from them and resell it.
We would come home from school and we’d take out the webbing, and my parents would go to the Laundromat at night and wash it, and then he’d sell it. He could make a huge profit from it since he did all the labor himself.”
Part of Nathan’s success was his ingenuity. Carol remembers when Barrington Plaza in Los Angeles was undergoing renovation. Fireproofing and plastering debris was coating the area, including all cars parked nearby. Someone asked Nathan if he had a solution, so he started making tarps out of his surplus parachutes.
“All the buildings were covered in camouflage!”
“Initially, he started selling surplus. The second or third time he bought one of these