How the Bishopston Trading Company came about

Carolyn Whitwell is the designer and founder of Bishopston Trading Company, the UK Co-operative that sells women’s and children’s wear made in K.V.Kuppam. Carolyn had been involved with VSO in India when she was 21, and had become very interested in development education. In 1978, Carolyn and Sally Whittingham were both living in Bishopston in Bristol. Together they set up the twinning link with K.V.Kuppam and Bishopston.

As the secretary of the charity, Carolyn became aware of the real needs of the village. On a visit to South India the village leaders told her; “It’s not charity we want, it is work.” With this in mind she set out to start a trading company that would do just that.

Carolyn Whitwell is the driving force behind the success of the Trading Company.

After completing a business course at Bristol University, Carolyn together with her husband, two young children and a three month old baby, set off for India. She took with her some examples of clothes she had designed herself and met with the local tailors. After one month they had found a cutter, four tailors, a cleaner and a building for them all to work in producing clothes for a shop which had been leased on the Gloucester Road in Bishopston, Bristol. In 1985 the company was set up and funded through a £5,000 overdraft. Bishopston provided the skills of designing and marketing the clothing for the UK market and K.V.Kuppam provided the weaving and tailoring skills and the raw materials.

After one year the Trading Company (which is financially entirely separate from the Bishopston-Kuppam Link- a registered charity) was still heavily in debt. The greatest problem was actually exporting the clothes but after an exceptionally efficient export agent was found in Chennai things began to run more smoothly.
Despite many hurdles, today BTC, which became a worker’s co-operative in 1989 after breaking even, has a part time staff of 37, four directors (of which Carolyn is one), a business turnover of over £870,000, five shops and 100 wholesale customers, including in Holland, New York and New Zealand as well as a mail order catalogue.

Until January 2006 the tailoring units were in small buildings throughout the village.

In K.V.Kuppam, BTC provides full time employment to 268 tailors, cutters, embroiderers, appliqué workers and support staff, which is an increase of 39% in the two years since 2005. The working day is 8 hours, 6 days a week; each employee receives a fair wage and extra benefits such as gifts of money at festival times and on marriage, access to a provident fund and gratuity on retirement, holiday, casual and medical leave and an allowance for medical care and refreshments. In addition the company provides work for a further 300 handloom weavers. With the rise of the self help groups the company are now able to source handloom cotton directly from 98 weavers in 6 Self Help Groups, which has enabled some of the weavers to pay off their debts to the Master Weavers.

Arul, seen here with his wife Uma, is a senior and much respected member of the Tailoring Society. He has worked tirelessly to help local tailors and weavers set up their own Self Help Groups.

Any profit is used to help the community and in the past six years the co-operative has also channelled part of its profits through a Trust in India to buy a plot of land and build model tailoring units on the outskirts of the village. This purpose built factory was inaugurated in January 2006, just over 20 years since Carolyn started the business. She describes the opening of the factory as her proudest moment. “It was just fantastic, beyond what I’d ever expected. I’d had this idea of a little shop in Bishopston, something to make the link a reality-but the whole thing has got much, much bigger now.”
This successful co-operative in South India is run by the villagers for the villagers. None of the staff from the tailoring units are graduates from outside-they are all local people from the village, who left school at 15 or 16. As Carolyn says, “They run it and they run it very well”.
With a little bit of help from a remarkable woman!

Land with a beautiful Mango tree in the centre was purchased for the new factory.

Work begins in 2003.

Work progresses, with the Mango tree in the centre of it all.

In late 2005 the beautiful and innovative architect designed factory was completed.

The Mango tree now provides shelter from the sun for the workers and is surrounded by the main factory buildings.

The Architect poses proudly with Carolyn and other members at the inauguration of the buildings in January 2006.

Selvi, who is a senior member of the Tailoring Society, is now Manager of the new guest house.

Sally Whittingham and UK visitors, with Selvi, Arul and Gurunadan on the roof of the guest house.

The workers love their new work space. Designed to be cool and give maximum light.