Bata Shoes

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Bata Shoes (in Czech Baťovy závody) is large, family owned shoe company. It is currently headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and operates in 68 countries.

1 Foundation
2 Led by Jan Antonín Baťa
3 During the war
4 After the war
5 In Czechoslovakia after 1989
6 See also
7 External links

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Foundation

The company was founded in 1894 in Zlín (then Austro-Hungarian Empire, today the Czech Republic). It was founded by Tomáš Baťa whose family had been cobblers for generations. A large order from the army during World War I started rapid growth and small manufacture turned into modern industrial concern, one of the first mass producers of shoes.

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Led by Jan Antonín Baťa

In 1932 Tomáš Baťa died in a plane crash and his step-brother Jan Antonín Baťa became head of the company. The company grew quickly and spread throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa. The company established itself in India in 1931 and started manufacturing shoes in Batanagar in 1936.

Jan Antonín Baťa established subsidiaries in several foreign countries (for example in Brazil, Britain and Canada) in 1939 in response to the unstable political situation in Europe. A Bata-owned Lockheed plane was flown out of Czechoslovakia 2 days before German occupation, which took place on 15 March 1939. The plane made it to Britain where it was dismantled and shipped to Canada.[1]

Company policy was to set up villages around the factories for the workers and to supply schools and welfare. These villages include Batadorp in the Netherlands, Baťovany (present-day Partizánske) and Svit in Slovakia, Baťov (nowadays Bahňák, part of Otrokovice) in the Czech Republic, Batawa in Canada, Tilbury [2] in Essex, England, Batapur in Pakistan and Batanagar in India.

Apart from shoes, Baťa also diversified into other areas (tyres, toys, plastic fibres, etc.). Zlín factory was place of headquarters and largest part of the company.

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During the war

When Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia (1939) Jan Antonín Baťa tried to save as much as possible, subduing to the plans of Germans as well as supporting financially the exile government led by Edvard Beneš. Foreign factories were separated from mother company and ownership of plants in Czech lands was tranferred to one member of the family.

Jan Antonín Baťa stayed in the Americas but during the war he was put on "black list" of people cooperating with Nazis and forbidden to enter the USA. He was accused of designing a plan to transfer whole Czech population to Patagonia as Germans wished to fully Germanize area of the Czech lands.

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After the war

After the war Jan Antonín Baťa attempted (unsuccessfully) to clean up his name against the accusations. Members of the family started to sue one another over ownership of the company; mutual hatred among branches of the family lasted for decades. In 1945 the company was nationalised as a part of large scale nationalisation programme in Czechoslovakia.

After communist party took all power (1948) it tried to suppress all memory of Tomáš Baťa and his successors. Baťa was portrayed as a ruthless capitalist, exploiting his workers in pursuit of higher profit (see Svatopluk Turek). The company was renamed to Svit and city Zlín to Gotwaldov (after the leader of communist party).

The Svit factory became concentrated on domestic market. During following decades its ability to compete and technological infrastructure dropped due to under-investment and weak management.

The organisations abroad became Bata Shoe Company and were led by Thomas J. Bata (Tomáš Baťa Junior), son of Tomáš Baťa. In 1960 headquarters were moved to Toronto, Canada and the company grew up significantly. Since 2002 it is led by Thomas G. Bata, gradson of Tomáš Baťa.

The Baťa family and the company have founded Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto and supported Trent University where the Thomas J. Bata Library bears Baťa's name.

Current shoe brands are Bata, Bata Premium (handcrafted dress shoes), Bata Industrial (safety footwear), Bubblegummers (children's), Power (sports shoes and boots), and Marie Claire (women's).

In its history the company has sold 14 billion pairs of shoes.

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In Czechoslovakia after 1989

After communist party lost its power (1989) Thomas J. Bata was warmly welcomed by the population and the new government upon his arrival in December 1989. Czechoslovak government asked (unsuccessfully) for investments into the ailing Svit. Since companies nationalised before 1948 were not returned to original owners the state owned Svit was privatized during voucher privatization. Low ability to compete on free market led to decline and in 2000 Svit went bankrupt.

Image:Bata CZ.gif Nowadays, Baťa a.s. (the official name of Czech subsidiary) is mainly a trading business. Apart from shoe stores, it also runs a small production facility in Dolní Němčí, a shoe museum in Zlín and Bata Foundation (Nadace Tomáše Baťi), which supports cultural and educational projects. The main street in Zlín and its university are both named after Tomáš Baťa.

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