Bishopston Trading Company is a fair trade company whose sole aim is to provide employment for the people of K.V.Kuppam, a village in South India with whom we have been working in partnership since 1985. We use Fairtrade certified organic cotton and are members of the World Fair Trade Organisation.
In essence the company is a trading partnership: Bishopston provides the design and marketing skills and the capital investment in the form of forward payments, and K.V.Kuppam provide the weaving and tailoring skills. From small beginnings, when six people were employed in the Tailoring Units in K.V.Kuppam, the company has grown to provide employment to almost 200 tailors, cutters, hand-finishers, embroiderers and craft workers. A further 90 people are employed as handloom weavers who produce the beautiful handloom Fairtrade certified organic cotton cloth that is used to make clothes, toys, bags, bedding and much more.

The company now has four shops in the Southwest of England (Bradford on Avon, Glastonbury, Totnes and Bishopston Bristol), as well as an online and catalogue mail order business and a wholesale department.

The mission statement of the company is: To Import directly from rural India with the sole aim of Fair Trading.