Supreme Quilts Celebrates 25 years!

Supreme Quilts first opened for business on August 1st 2001. We've turned 25!

Here is the history on how we became Supreme Quilts and how our business progressed over the past 25 years.

1993 - 2001

I was manager of Superior Quilts Co. Superior Quilts was a franchised business with the Adelaide store setting the high standards for the whole franchise to follow, while mostly independent. I became manager after originally starting off with no experience in quilts mostly processing the cleaning of the downs and refilling once the downs and the casing had been cleaned. At this time 99% of all sales was from cleaning quilts.

My roles gradually increased to every aspect of running the business, until the then manager resigned and I was appointed.

During this time the owners and mentors Peter and Tina Schembri had grown tired of owning the business, exceptionally qualified big corporation people they had more than enough to do. They decide to sell in 2001. I was offered the first opportunity to purchase the business, an offer to good to refuse.

August 2001 - 2007

Once I had purchased the business we traded as Supreme Quilts. Pulling out of the franchise was key, for the fee required it was a no brainer, kept a similar name, same location (Parkside SA) same phone number same practices.

The first few years were quite tough, (our sales were still around 99% from cleaning). A business that did very well from April to August struggled September to March. Winter was extremely busy but as it warmed up it would become very quiet. I remember each December I would be trying to work out how the accounts would be paid. See the accounts July and August we issued to us in September-December. Advertising and stock being the killers combined with the rent costs being in the Unley area. It was a delicate balance as well as being extremely stressful. (Below, the old shop in Parkside)

2007 - 2014

As we battled away working on ways to promote the business restrained by relying purely on the Adelaide market I asked my wife a question that dramatically changed our business.

While watching TV an the computer on eBay as some do, I asked her, "what if I put a quilt onto eBay?" Cant hurt, already have an account, take some photos, write up a description, list it. Sold the first one. Listed 2-3 more and they went okay as well. It was late July so we had missed the key winter sales, but it went okay until March the next year, listed a few more and sales doubled, next year sales doubled again. I listed more and more until sales of new quilts and pillows out grew quilt cleaning. Sales during this time increased 3 fold, the stress started to be less on survival but more on functionality, keeping up with it all. Cleaning income was gradually taken over by new quilt and pillow sales.

We already had a website for information however as we got towards 2014 I started to think more and more about having a website to sell our products. I was initially told no you dont need this, its not really that type of business, its not necessary. As the year passed I thought more about it contacted our advertising agency and got it done.

(Below my R8 "delivery car" loading up)

2014 - 2020

With our website now selling online with a basic range built for the cost we paid (cheap by todays standards) I gradually added more products. The website started to grow more and more, sales started to become greater than eBay which I enjoyed, it lowered the costs. Early on during this period new quilt and pillow sales continued to grown from a 50/50 split with cleaning, making up around 80-90% of our income.

Our orders would be packed and transported home, my wife prepared the Aust Post paperwork, (no online options like today). We would then carry them across the road to our LPO.

I had also started to import our own supply of downs and cases. The reliability of the supplier in Melbourne along with the quality they provided was falling short. Importing a container of downs meant we had another issue, room. Also being busier also created another issue too, time. 

We needed time and space (sounds science like?). Solution, move from Parkside to Para Hills West, its 10 mins from home, that saved over an hour a day, rent was cheaper, double the space half the cost. This move did worry me alot. We had always been in the Unley area, how will this impact us? It had no negative impact at all, with our reliance on Adelaide for sales reduced to 1-2% we now had the whole of Australia to sell to, with an occasional sale to the US or NZ.

(Below another large container of downs just arrived)

2020 - 2021

In 2020 we all know Covid hit. March, what is going to happen, sales might plummet, we might be in lockdown? Thankfully we were online, we worked alone, we were in a lockdown and deliveries could be made being an essential service. More so was travel was massively restricted, we found people spending money or home goods like ours instead of travel. Sales went crazy. We were extremely lucky, many were not. Our quilt cleaning had stopped for the year, which I really enjoyed not doing, 27 years of cleaning quilts was getting close to long enough. 

2021 - 2025

Since Covid our business evolved again. Cleaning quilts was now making up less than 1% of our income. While our downs came from Europe the fabric component was Chinese. Like many we thought Australia's reliance on China needed to change. I decided at that time all of our fabric supply would come from Weidmann Germany. Highest qualities but at a premium price. Again my thought was how will this play out. It costs 4-5 times more so our prices will need to change, will this create a down turn?

Down supplies had also been impacted due to Covid. Hungarian downs had been compromised, Russian downs not for import with supply from Ukraine also no longer available meant down prices increased year on year by 20-30%. Hungarian Goose down was always the go to but due to its now poor quality we no longer sold it. No longer having this down as an option while most other manufacturers were still using it was a concern. If we dont have it will sales slip? Thankfully customers understood why and were always glad they had asked and not gone somewhere else. With our higher quality Polish Goose downs now taking over.

Once these various changes had come into place, due to eBay policies, eBay business selling structure and increased costs I removed eBay as a sales platform. I dont miss it at all either.

In 2023 we had another fortune of luck. Discussions on Reditt in the US about our high quality products gained traction. Posts made early in the year suddenly created a huge increase in sales in September. The US market had evolved our business again. Gradually our US market increased to be approximately 50% of sales during our winter months to around 70% during what was traditionally our quieter months. Since our sales have tripled, something I am extremely grateful for. As demand from the US continued to grow so had our range of US size quilts/comforters and pillows.

2025 - Present

In the past 12 months we continue to be extremely busy not without its challenges. Increased sales requires more stock, more stock can create logistical issues with timing, order quantities, supply time lines and costs.

An extremely delicate balance to get right. Throw in tariffs. Preparation by Australia Post to collect tariffs meant US customers had to wait, thankfully they did. As I have mentioned Supreme Quilts continues to pay the tariff and not collect it from US customers, but that an extra cost we now bare, however thankfully this has not impacted sales.

Right now the economic uncertainty makes things a little difficult to forecast, April and May saw a small down turn due to the Middle East but as that settled down we saw a massive increase in June and the 1st half of July. Now the Middle East has kicked off again it sales slip back again.

Regardless, I will continue to deliver the highest quality down Supreme Quilts and Pillows you can get anywhere in the world at the best prices possible regardless of where you live.

Today Supreme Quilts celebrates 25 years in business. I'd say here's to another 25  years but hopefully I might have sold the business and retired by then! Doing this at 82?? I am not so sure about.

Thankyou to every single customer that has purchased and supported us over all of these years. I truly appreciate it.