The Bag Company grew out of an idea for a student project.
What actually happens to all those banners, tarpaulins and exhibition stands once a campaign is over? Back then: rubbish. The idea was as simple as it was obvious: turn them into bags. Sturdy, personalised and durable. And because laptops were just becoming standard kit for students in the early 2000s, the first models under the label b.payne a padded laptop compartment.
Every bag is unique, with its own story, and each one is handmade. What began as a university project has grown into a business, with production based at our partner factory in Poland. The principle we adopted back then still holds true today: sustainable business practices and genuine craftsmanship are not at odds with good design.
For larger production runs, we needed a manufacturing facility that could scale up with us. We found it in China and have remained with the same partner factory for around 20 years. That’s not something to be taken for granted in this industry. It means: well-established processes, familiar quality standards and contacts who know our designs, rather than having to explain what matters to us from scratch every time.
The order book grew, and with it, the level of responsibility. In 2008, the label became Pro Factory Werbemittel GmbH & Co. KG: a step from a one-man project to a company with established structures.
Purchase of our first in-house printing press for digitally printing tarpaulin material for Cargo:Bags, which was then our new core business alongside Recyclingbags: bags made from newer Truck tarpaulin, suitable for full-surface printing. In the same year, Berrick Payne completed his training as a certified media producer (f:mp). Since then, this printing expertise has been directly incorporated into consultancy and production.
Jessica Payne brings business management expertise, with a focus on marketing, to the company, and with her comes an understanding of what B2B customers really need.
With our partner in Istanbul, we added a third production site, specialising in carrier bags, offering attractive prices and short lead times. Since then, we have been able to choose the site that best suits each project.
Our first apprentice has started their training as an e-commerce specialist. Training our own young talent rather than simply recruiting it: for us, this is also part of what makes a healthy business.
Customers came to us for upcycling and then asked for the rest: cotton bags for trade fairs, felt for onboarding, laptop bags for the fleet, and cooler bags for the retail sector. So we learnt as we went along, material by material. Today we manufacture using 14 different materials, ranging from small batches in Poland to large-scale production in Asia, all planned and managed by our team in Neu Wulmstorf near Hamburg.