About Us
OUR STORY
We are the world’s largest ethical manufacturer of reusable bags, and sustainable packaging and merchandise from textiles.
We are:
- Supplying over 70,000 brands across the world from including large retailers, and smaller brands including Tesco, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Harrods, NIKE, London Fashion Week, Google, L’Oreal, Chanel, Dior and a variety of start-up brands.
- A UK-based company with the head office located in London.
- The proud owner of a beautiful factory that we built in Pondicherry in India.
- Selling around the world: across Europe, the USA, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia.
- Our award-winning factory is Fairtrade accredited, has an 80%+ women workforce, and uses sustainable manufacturing methods to reduce waste in water, energy, and materials. We have the latest technology in working with natural fabrics such as cotton, canvas, jute and work with deadstock leathers, faux-leathers, recycled nylons, and rPET.
- We house some of the best stitching, cutting, printing machines in the world – from high quality silk screen-printing, to UV, to digital, to embroidery and more.
- Our investment in on our people and technology allows us to support our clients for various needs in design, tailoring, packaging, merchandise and more. We also partner with the best universities and research institutes in the world to help reduce single-use plastic across packaging and merchandise globally.
- We are the “Business is GREAT” champion for export, the National Award Winner for Most Ethical Supply Chain by the Prince of Wales’ Business in the Community, the COP26 case study of excellence and many more.
The beginning – 1999
In 1983 our Founder and Chairman Dr R. Sri Ram moved to London to work as a director for India’s largest industrial group.
In 1999, he founded the Supreme Group with a clear and strong vision of excellence and high standards.
His values which became the company’s span 3 levels:
- Professional = large manufacturing capacity managed by a team of experts. Use of the best technology and machines available in the world trained by the best experts.
- Ethical = fair treatment of employees and the entire supply chain including farmers who form our supply chain, and having a conscious female empowerment and employment strategy to help them become key breadwinners in their families
- Green = sustainable materials and practices from sourcing to delivery
This vision implies setting up a high benchmark and values within the industry.
Our global offices
Over more than two decades, Supreme Creations has expanded to develop a global group with headquarters in London, a manufacturing base in Pondicherry, South India and sales offices in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
We supply some of the best brands in the world – Dior, Nike, Google, London Fashion Week, Selfridges, Harrods, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and more.
Our team
80% of the 800 employees, are women, many of whom are from under-privileged backgrounds. We are proud that many who joined the company as young women in the factory are now married with grown-up children who are themselves, engineers and doctors.
Employees enjoy job security, training, good salaries, a clean and safe working environment and respect. We have one of the lowest worker turnover rates in the industry and many of the women are in management positions.
Wings of Hope and the Wings of Hope Achievement Awards(WOHAA) - 2003
Created in 2003 by Dr R. Sri Ram and his wife, Mrs Rajni Sriram, The Wings of Hope Children’s Charity was setup to support skills and education for children and young people around the world. In the UK nearly 40,000 students have gone through the flagship Wings of Hope Achievement Awards programme which allows students to manage their own projects and gain transferrable like skills such as philanthropy, entrepreneurship, communication, teamwork, and leadership.
The immersive programme has support from many senior business leaders, members of Parliament and celebrities from the acting, and sporting world with awards ceremonies taking place at The House of Lords, London Business School, and Wembley Stadium.
The international education projects support poor and economically disadvantaged children in India and Malawi with free education, and tuition projects.
How climate change and the plastic bag ban boosted the company - 2005
Introduced in 2005 in the UK, the Courtauld Commitment is a voluntary agreement that incites businesses to reduce waste and especially single-use plastic waste.
Anticipating the disappearance of plastic bags in the retail world and the emergence of re-usable eco-friendly bags, Supreme Creations invested into high-tech printing and stitching machines from some of the best manufacturers in the world. A modern design studio was also set up to facilitate complex artwork projects.
Within six months, Supreme Creations was ready to produce high volumes of reusable bags.
While Tesco started its “Bags for Life” program, with over a million units successfully produced in a month, the Co-Op group approached Supreme Creations with a new challenge: creating the first Fairtrade eco-friendly bag.
This was the opportunity for the Supreme Creations team to source new cotton farmers who not only were responsible employers who treated their workers with respect and fairness but also were not using pesticides or herbicides to grow their crops.
Supreme Creations helped some farmers to become more eco-friendly and earn their Fairtrade label.
2005 was also the year where His Royal Highness King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla got married. To stay in line with the then HRH Prince Charles huge interest in sustainability and environment, only ethical companies were commissioned to provide eco-friendly memorabilia and Supreme Creations had the honour to produce commemorative tea towels.
HRH Prince of Wales’ BITC National Example of Excellence – 2009
10 years after its creation, and with the 2008/9 financial crisis rampant, Supreme Creations received a prestigious award from His Royal Highness King Charles as a British company committed to improving its impact on environment and society as National Award Winner for Most Ethical Supply Chain.
2009 was also the time when Supreme Creations made its way into the world of fashion and beauty, with contracts with Nike, Zara, Adidas and Topshop, which led later to a contracts with London Fashion Week, Dior, Chanel, Harrods, Sephora, Charlotte Tilbury, Printemps, Fashion Trust Arabia and more.
Dr R Sri Ram receiving an award from HRH King Charles III at Clarence House, London.
Bags of Ethics: creation of a label for excellence – 2009
Bags of Ethics is a positive label that promotes the people and planet behind reusable products.
With Bags of Ethics, Supreme Creations wants to share its own standards of respect for people, in supply chains, and products and processes that impact our planet with others, in an effort to get rid of single-use plastic consumption.
Click here to learn more.
2016: Business is GREAT: National Example of Excellence
In 2016 Supreme Creations were selected as part of the UK Government’s Business is GREAT initiative to be an ambassador business. We were champions of British export and our work was promoted in embassies across the world, as well as across billboards, busses and national online adverts across the UK.
The covid crisis: a turning point – 2020
When countries and economies came to a standstill with the arrival of Covid-19, governments were looking for solutions to produce the protections necessary to fight the pandemic, especially face masks.
With an expertise and a supply chain dedicated to reusable products, the Supreme Creations’ team created a task force of microbiologists, industrial engineers and our technicians to create a reusable face covering which was effective at reducing the transmission of particles, whilst being able to be washed, and adjusted for different sizes of faces.
Thanks to a close relationship with the British Fashion Council, Supreme Creations enlisted several famous British Fashion Designers including Mulberry, RAEBURN and Julien Macdonald to creative beautiful artworks to offer an attractive choice of reusable masks for consumers.
Within two weeks a first prototype was approved and ready to produced and sold under the label Bags of Ethics and retailed at Waitrose, Boots, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis and others. Part of the sale of the proceeds from the project the British Fashion Council Foundation Fund (over 53 businesses received grants), NHS Charities Together and Wings of Hope.
The masks also received a coveted Which? Recommendation Best Buy and was covered across national media including ITV, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph and more.
See more about Bags of Ethics and the Great British Designer campaign HERE
COP-26 National Ambassador
In 2021 Supreme Creations was chosen as a sustainable business ambassador for COP26 when the conference was held in Glasgow. Our work was shown across social media by the UK government as an example of a sustainable business.
The Queen’s Green Canopy – 2022
The Queen’s Green Canopy was an initiative from HRH King Charles to celebrate HM Queen’s Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. The initiative encouraged tree planting and preservation across the country and the Commonwealth.
The charity turned to Bags of Ethics and Supreme Creations to provide the clothing (t-shirts and hoodies) for a team of volunteers, but also to create and produce a collection of memorabilia with great success. Through our partnership and support along with other companies (many Royal Warrant holders) over 3.75 million trees were planted across the UK.
Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and European editorial director of Condé Nast, Alok Sharma, Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, President of COP26; Dr Sri Ram, founder of Supreme Creations and Bags of Ethics
Supporting the Fashion Trust Arabia
Our work in supporting designers across the world, extended to supporting fledging designers in the Middle East and North Africa region.
We have raised over $1 million through a charity bag partnership with renowned couture designer, Zuhair Murad, to support the wonderful work of Fashion Trust Arabia.
Green Tree Badge
In September 2023 Supreme Creations/ Bags of Ethics along with founding charity partner, Royal Forestry Society, launched an ambitious campaign to get 1 million children across the UK to actively learn more about trees. Dr R. Sri Ram, and Smruti Sriram along with world-leading and conservation experts co-authored an official Activity Passbook. The project is supported by celebrities including Sir David Jason, Millie and Mackintosh.
Dr Sri Ram at the Kew Gardens Green Tree Badge launch event
Tony Kirkham MBE,VMH, FICFor (Hon) , Former Head of the Arboretum, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Smruti Sri Ram, CEO at Bags of Ethics, Supreme Creations, Christopher Williams, Chief Executive, The Royal Forestry Society.
TEACHING AND GIVING BACK
Dr. R. Sri Ram and Smruti Sriram regularly give lectures to business school and sustainability students at graduate and undergraduate level at London Business School, The Grossman School of Business: Vermont, University of Oxford, and University of Westminster. They are also leading conversations in sustainability events and forums across the world to discuss women in business, sustainable family businesses and have had their work featured in case studies and books.