Successful Easton Company Rebuilds After Fire

Local business people, officials and laborers had an unusual reason to celebrate Tuesday morning, even in the midst of a sluggish economy.

They gathered to commemorate the re-opening of Willwork, Inc., an exhibit and event services company based in South Easton, which was forced into temporary quarters because of a 2009 fire.

The company employed 3,000 people nationwide last year, including 80 full-time employees, and it plans to add another 20 new jobs over the next two years. Now, it is reopening its offices and warehouse in the same building that was burned down and gutted, at 23 Norfolk St. in the Easton Industrial Park. 

“This is a difficult community to leave, so we decided really quickly to relocate here,” said founder and owner, Bill Nixon.

Nixon started the company in 1989, and he is a long-time resident of Easton.  He taught history and coached four sports teams at Oliver Ames High School, and is the same Bill Nixon for which the high school’s gymnasium is named.

He said he started the company at the urging of his son, James, who is now the company’s event specialist.  The company installs and dismantles exhibits in trade shows. James and his friends were some of the original laborers for the company.

The company developed close ties with the community, and Nixon said he decided to stay in Easton after the fire because he was so pleased with his local workers and the town.  He was impressed with the local fire department, which he said took care of all the fire issues so he could concentrate on rebuilding his business, and grateful to local employees, who immediately found another building in which to relocate, right down the street.   

He said they were back in business within a few days after the fire.

“This helped us to make the decision to stay put right where we are,” he said.

Now, the company is a boon for the area; it uses local banks, local laborers, and buys local supplies.  It kept all its workers fully employed during the rebuilding period, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on building renovations.

The new headquarters houses three other Easton companies that work hand-in-hand with Willwork on different events.  Those companies are 4 Productions, which does audio/visual and lighting for events, Team Work, which does exhibit work in retail shows, and in4med, which tracks the success of events.

The company often employs union workers, and it services both small and large companies, including Reebok, Nike, Monster.com, IBM, Dupont, Nokia, Yahoo, Covidien and Addidas. 

It has nine offices nationally and will be working on 70 trade shows in the Boston area next year. 

“We hire a lot of people and that’s a great feeling for us,” said David King, vice president of operations.

James Nixon said the name “Willwork” was derived from his friends, who said they were doing “Willy’s work” when they worked on setting up and dismantling exhibits.  

Before the company had an official name, a sponsor for a sports team decided to shorten it to “Willwork,” and the name stuck. 

Nixon received citations from State Sen. Brian Joyce, and representatives of U. S. Sen. Scott Brown, U. S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, and State Rep. Christine Canavan. 

He also received praise from Easton Selectmen Chairwoman Colleen Corona and Michael Hunter, the Massachusetts Undersecretary of Housing and Economic Development.

“Thank you for taking a chance on Massachusetts,” Hunter said.