About Us

Bishopston Trading Company was set up in 1985 to import from rural South India with the sole aim of fair trading. Our base is the village of K.V.Kuppam which has been linked to Bishopston in Bristol for many years. We only use Fairtrade certified organic cotton and are members of the World Fair Trade Organization.

In 1978 a group of residents of Bishopston in Bristol twinned their community with the South Indian village of K.V.Kuppam.

Their intention was to promote friendship and mutual understanding between two very different parts of the world.

Several years later, Carolyn Whitwell, the group�s secretary received a letter from a village leader in K.V.Kuppam which moved her profoundly: the letter thanked the twinning committee for all their support, but made the simple assertion that as skilled craftspeople the villagers wanted work not charity.

With this in mind Carolyn set up Bishopston Trading Company as a means of providing employment for the village of K.V. Kuppam by utilising the traditional handloom weaving that was one of the major crafts of the area. Bishopston provided the design and marketing skills and the capital investment in the form of forward payments, and K.V. Kuppam provided the weaving and tailoring skills. From small beginnings, when six people were employed in the Tailoring Units in K.V.Kuppam, the company grew steadily and in 2005 a model factory was opened which had been built on a plot of land just outside the village - funded from six years of profits from Bishopston Trading Company. At that time the company in UK had five shops, a mail order department and a growing wholesale section.

However things have changed hugely in the last 28 years and particularly in the last seven years � K.V.Kuppam is now barely recognisable � everyone has colour televisions and mobile phones. The roads have been improved and fast and cheap trains mean that people can find work in Chennai and Bangalore. A whole generation has grown up with better education and they aspire to more than being tailors and weavers or working on the land. Here, in Europe, we have been struck by a devastating recession meaning that we have had to downsize and now only have two shops. We are continuing to work in K.V.Kuppam with a large group of weavers, as handloom cotton remains our main fabric, and we are also working with a smaller group of tailors whose skills of appliqu� and hand embroidery make our clothing range so special. This group will also produce our non clothing items.

There are other areas of Tamil Nadu that have not been so fortunate and we are now also working with a new, Indian-led company called Fair Links, who are totally committed to fair trade and to working with disadvantaged women in rural areas.

The mission statement of the company is: