The "JB Silks" Story

Janice Schmidt founded JB Silks 20 years ago.  I grew up in the fabric industry working with my mother, Joan Schmidt, and uncle Dieter Bischoff, who each had over 35 years experience in the retail and wholesale fabric business.  My mother and I would often discuss the gap in the market and the need for good quality silk fabrics. 

It was then that I decided to begin to import beautiful qualities of silk fabrics.  The name was chosen: “Janice’s Beautiful Silks” – hence the name “JB Silks”!   My start in the wholesale business began in a small loft at the back of my mother’s retail fabric store.  JB Silks quickly out-grew this original space and moved into a warehouse/office space in the garment district of downtown Vancouver, where I continued to develop the JB Silks line.  Realizing that JB Silks had outgrown this space, we moved to our Surrey head office/warehouse in June of 1999.

Today, JB Silks has warehouses in Canada and USA.  I reside on the border of USA and Canada traveling to both warehouses on a daily basis, to oversee quality control standards and to be intimately involved in the needs of our customers.   

When developing additions to the JB Silks line, your input of ideas and requests are constantly in front of me and consequently form an integral component of JB Silks.  Please be assured that I very much treasure the excellent customer rapport that we have developed over the years and which is the cornerstone for the way I want to manage my business.