COMPANY HISTORY

Early beginnings from music gig t-shirts and Studio 69, UK

Cotton World was founded by Gary M. Holley, who back in the 1980's was working as a music promoter in the rock industry. He promoted up-and-coming bands who had cracked the UK Top 40 and were being paid by their record Label to go on tour.

Gary seized the opportunity to supply t-shirts for some of the gigs, and was introduced to a screen printing company called Studio 69. The owner loved his artwork and drumming, but hated printing, so much so that when Gary told him that Michael Lee (RIP) had left Little Angels to join The Cult, he auditioned. Unfortunately he did not get the position, packed his bags, cleared off to London and sold the company to Gary.

Soon after Studio 69 ventured into embroidery, and was one of very few companies in the country that had expertise across a range of print and embroidery techniques.

The formation of Cotton Planet, Singapore partnership

By the mid 1990's Gary had become very disillusioned with the quality of polo shirts and t-shirts in the UK market and, after years of research, founded Cotton Planet in partnership with a sister company in Singapore. The partnership enabled Cotton Planet to manufacture clothing from our overseas factory to such a high quality that it became recognised as one of the best manufacturers of polo shirts and t-shirts in the country.

Cotton Planet grew to supply customers from across Europe, with its partners supplying all of Asia from their base in Singapore.

Cotton World, UK and India

In the years that followed, Cotton Planet eventually dissolved the Singapore partnership (but still remain great friends to this day), and the name Cotton World was born. This enabled us to establish 100% control of manufacturing, brand name and commercial marketing.

Since, Cotton World has grown significantly with production facilities in the UK and at our partner factory in India. With a strong international trading network, we are able to offer full garment origination at high-volume, alongside established print and embroidery services on to readymade products.

Recently we formed subsidiary company Chari-tees™, our own brand working direct with charities to deliver high quality garment solutions for merchandising, fundraising and promotional events. Our subsidiary offers a complete package for charities, taking care of the whole process from design and manufacture, to developing e-commerce solutions.

Always looking to innovate and meet the demands of our clients, we have moved into the bespoke market with the launch of a new service that enables you to produce and design full colour images online.

Our founder

I hope that you will become one of our new happy customers, with the confidence of a company with over three decades of printing and manufacturing experience.

Gary M. Holley
Founder
Cotton World