Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 5, 1 May 1991 — Nightingale's Uniforms expands with OHA loan [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nightingale's Uniforms expands with OHA loan

by Deborah Ward Editor, Ka Wai Ola O OHA

Hawaii's newest uniform company is Nightingale's Uniform Co., owned and operated by Mary and Barry Villamil, and located at the Harbor Center in Aiea. In January this year the Villamils opened their shop with the assistance of a business loan from the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund, an OHA eeonomie development program established with funding from the Administration for Native Americans. What makes this company perhaps unique is the designer and chief promoter of Nightingale's Uniforms is herself a nurse. Mary Villamil is a fulltime nurse supervisor at Straub Hospital in Honolulu. She is therefore positioned to know what nurses and other medical professionals need and want, and she sees what they are buying. In 1988 she began to make clothes for nurse eoworkers in her Aiea home. They encouraged her to open a shop, and insisted there was need for another uniform company (the largest in the state at present is Uniforms by Malia), especially to serve petite women. Gradually her business grew to serve other companies for medical and business uniforms. She enrolled in an entrepreneurship development class with Alu Like, and through trainer Dennis Kondo learned how to develop a business plan. Kondo also told her about OHA's Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund. Now her husband Barry works fulltime for the company, doing sales calls and bookkeeping. Mary helps with designs, pattern-making and sister-in-law Robin Villamil helps out part-time in the shop and keeps inventory as the sole employee. The company ean do custom fit orders up to size XXXXXL. They have outfitted uniforms for the LPN and RN classes at Kapiolani Community

College and for Cannon's Business College nursing technician program. The Villamils have relied on going to trade shows, nursing career day shows, and hospital fashion shows as direct promotion. Mary considers the market in Hawai'i as larger than she had anticipated. Clients now include nurses, dental hygienists, hairdressers, lab technicians, bakers and restaurant workers. They are the only company in the Leeward O'ahu area with a major selection of uniforms for both women and men in many styles and colors. The Villamils send out flyers and walk the hospital corridors. Mary is proud of her personal touch and that nurses feel she is "one of them." For this reason, perhaps, they attract clients from Kahuku Hospital, Tripler Army Medical Center, Pali Momi and even from Kaneohe.

She feels she learned the fundamentals of operating a business from the Alu Like business training class. They've learned from pastmistakes and plan to take it slow. The course taught them to be more cautious and stay within careful business limits. The OHA loan of $35,000 hasenabled them to open their store, buy inventory to stock the store and to fix up their store in an appealing Victorian style. Their uniforms are locally made by contract seamstresses. Mary stresses that quality of workmanship and material is very important to her and garments must stand up to frequent washings and still look crisp. What's new in the world of uniforms? The hottest thing now are scrubs, she says. Everyone wears them, and not just in the usual pale green or blue colors. Scrubs now eome in magenta, Pacific blue, racing purple. Hospitals are now mueh more open to colorful fashions wom by their personnel. Staff ean wear these colorful uniforms to work and feel good about it. Scrubs represent about 40 percent of their business Mary says, and eome in all kinds of plain or printed styles. Men love the comfort, so do surfers. The company is now introducing its new "aloha scrubs." The Villamil's goal for Nightingale's Uniform Co. is to reach out to the neighbor islands. She is company president, husband Barry is vicepresident. Seven-year-old daughter Heather helps tag clothes, count inventory and is learning about the business. Nightingale's Uniform Co. is located at Harbor Center Suite 22 (second floor), 98-030 Hekaha St. Hours are Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Phone number is 4887935.

Mary Villamil