Simas have niche market on making waterbed rails
GINNAYOUNG
COURIER SENTINEL
It’s a dying art, but one that is still needed and sought after by many clients. The art of fashioning waterbed rails.
Greg and Nancy Sima, rural Cadott, have been in business in a shop at their home, under Twin Lakes Products, since 1999, when the couple bought it from Alliance Plastics in Eagleton, which was known as Padded Caps of America.
Greg ran it before he bought it and thought it made sense, with him also doing upholstery. Orders piled in right from the get-go.
“People who are diehard waterbed rail sleepers have to get replacements,” said Nancy. The rails are made by Greg cutting a length of vinyl or cloth (vinyl is usually preferred), and laying a length of foam padding on top of that. By using a “channel,” which is built into a table, the flexible PVC rail is laid in and hot glued down. However, the end must be finished by hand.
From start to finish, it takes Greg roughly 30 minutes, although he does multiple cuttings at a time, so it’s hard to judge how long it actually takes.
“It’s a process,” said Nancy. Once they get enough to make it worthwhile to ship, Greg and Nancy send out their order. Because they’ve kept their overhead low and don’t need a big, fancy shop, the Simas have created a successful business.
Greg does all the cutting and gluing, Nancy does the bookwork and they have two part-time employees. While they run like a well-oiled team, in the beginning, Nancy felt overwhelmed, as she didn’t realize what the financial side would look like for her – taxes and invoices.
In those days, Nancy jokingly says all she heard was, “Oh by the way, I forgot to tell ya.”
“It wasn’t easy those first months,” agreed Greg.
Especially since Greg is a full-time pastor and Nancy was a full-time speech language educator at Lake Holcombe School (until her retirement this year), while they raised their son and daughter.
“It used to be, when it first started, a million dollar business,” said Greg. “But it ain’t like that no more.”
They now ship to one major company, Innomax Corporation, in Colorado.
“We send out like a pallet at a time for them,” said Greg, adding that they ship to only a few mom & pop companies now. “We used to have 50 mom & pop stores, but they’ve all gone out of
Once the vinyl or cloth-covered rails are completed, they’re stacked and ready for shipping. Most of the orders go to a large company in Colorado, but a few shipments still make their way to small businesses.
