Bata (company)

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Bata

Type Private company

Industry Retail and manufacturing

Founded 24 August 1894; 125 years ago in then Austria-

Hungary (now Czech Republic)

Founder Tomáš Baťa

Headquarters Lausanne, Switzerland

Area served Worldwide

Key people Thomas George Bata

(Chairman)[1][2]
Alexis Nasard
(CEO)[3]

Products Footwear, Clothing and Accessories

Owner Bata Family

Number of 600 (1912) 

employees

Website bata.com

BATA Limited[4] (also known as the Bata Shoe Organization) is

a multinational footwear and fashion accessory manufacturer and retailer based
in Lausanne, Switzerland.[5] A family-owned business, the company is organized into three business
 units: Bata, Bata Industrials and AW Lab. The company has a retail presence of over 5,300 shops in
more than 70 countries and production facilities in 18 countries.

Contents

 1Origins and history

o 1.1Foundation
o 1.2World War I
o 1.3Shoemaker to the world
o 1.4Foreign growth
o 1.5Jan Antonín Baťa
o 1.6Bata-villes
o 1.7World War II
o 1.8Post-war
o 1.9Czechoslovakia after 1989
o 1.10Present
 2Bata brands
 3Bata labels
 4In popular culture
 5See also
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links

Origins and history[edit]

Foundation[edit]
The T. & A. Baťa Shoe Company was founded on 24 August 1894 in the Moravian town of Zlín,
Austria-Hungary (today the Czech Republic) by Tomáš Baťa (Czech: [ˈtomaːʃ ˈbaca]), his brother
Antonín and his sister Anna, whose family had been cobblers for generations. The company
employed 10 full-time employees with a fixed work schedule and a regular weekly wage.
Tomáš, Antonín and Anna Baťa

In the summer of 1895, Tomáš was facing financial difficulties. To overcome these setbacks, he
decided to sew shoes from canvas instead of leather. This type of shoe became very popular and
helped the company grow to 50 employees. Four years later, Bata installed its first steam-driven
machines, beginning a period of rapid modernisation. In 1904, Tomáš read a newspaper article
about some machines being made in America. Therefore, he took three workers and journeyed
to Lynn, a shoemaking city outside Boston, in order to study and understand the American system of
mass production. After six months he returned to Zlin and he introduced mechanized production
techniques that allowed the Bata Shoe Company to become one of the first mass producers of
shoes in Europe. Its first mass product, the “Batovky,” was a leather and textile shoe for working
people that was notable for its simplicity, style, light weight and affordable price. Its success helped
fuel the company’s growth. After Antonin's death in 1908, Tomáš brought two of his younger
brothers, Jan and Bohuš, into the business. Initial export sales and the first ever sales agencies
began in Germany in 1909, followed by the Balkans and the Middle East. Bata shoes were
considered to be excellent quality, and were available in more styles than had ever been offered
before. By 1912, Bata was employing 600+ full-time workers, plus another several hundred who
worked out of their homes in neighbouring villages.
World War I[edit]
In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, the company had a significant development due to military
orders. From 1914 to 1918 the number of Baťa’s employees increased ten times. The company
opened its own stores in Zlín, Prague, Liberec, Vienna and Pilsen, among other towns.
In the global economic slump that followed World War I, the newly created country
of Czechoslovakia was particularly hard hit. With its currency devalued by 75%, demand for products
dropped, production was cut back, and unemployment was at an all-time high. Tomáš Baťa
responded to the crisis by cutting the price of Bata shoes in half. The company’s workers agreed to a
temporary 40 percent reduction in wages; in turn, Bata provided food, clothing, and other necessities
at half-price. He also introduced one of the first profit-sharing initiatives, transforming all employees
into associates with a shared interest in the company's success (today's equivalent of performance-
based incentives and stock options).
Shoemaker to the world[edit]
Consumer response to the price drop was dramatic. While most competitors were forced to close
because of the crisis in demand between 1923 and 1925, Bata was expanding as demand for the
inexpensive shoes grew rapidly. The Bata Shoe Company increased production and hired more
workers. Zlín became a veritable factory town, a "Bataville" covering several hectares. On the site
were grouped tanneries, a brickyard, a chemical factory, a mechanical equipment plant and repair
shop, workshops for the production of rubber, a paper pulp and cardboard factory (for production of
packaging), a fabric factory (for lining for shoes and socks), a shoe-shine factory, a power plant and
farming activities to cover food and energy needs. Workers, "Batamen", and their families had at
their disposal all the necessary everyday life services, including housing, shops, schools, and
hospital.
The T. & A. Baťa Shoe Company


Bata's Skyscraper
 


Batovka shoe
 


Bata in Zlín
 


Bata employee housing

  


1922 advertising
 


Bata store in the 1920s

 


Bata store in the 1920s

Foreign growth[edit]

Tomáš Baťa
Lockheed 10 Electra executive aircraft operated before the Second World War by Bata in Europe

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Bata also began to build towns and factories outside of Czechoslovakia (Poland, Latvia, Romania,
Switzerland, France) and to diversify into such industries as tanning (1915), the energy industry
(1917), agriculture (1917), forestry (1918), newspaper publishing (1918), brick manufacturing (1918),
wood processing (1919), the rubber industry (1923), the construction industry (1924), railway and air
transport (1924), book publishing (1926), the film industry (1927), food processing (1927), chemical
production (1928), tyre manufacturing (1930), insurance (1930), textile production (1931), motor
transport (1930), sea transport (1932), and coal mining (1932), airplane manufacturing (1934),
synthetic fibre production (1935), and river transport (1938). In 1923 the company boasted 112
branches.
In 1924, Tomáš Baťa displayed his business acumen by calculating how much turnover he needed
to make with his annual plan, weekly plans and daily plans. Baťa utilized four types of wages – fixed
rate, individual order based rate, collective task rate and profit contribution rate. He also set what
became known as Baťa prices: numbers ending with a nine rather than with a whole number. His
business skyrocketed. Soon Baťa found himself the fourth richest person in Czechoslovakia. From
1926 to 1928 the business blossomed as productivity rose 75 percent and the number of employees
increased by 35 per cent. In 1927 production lines were installed, and the company had its own
hospital. By the end of 1928, the company’s head factory was composed of 30 buildings. Then the
entrepreneur created educational organizations such as the Baťa School of Work and introduced the
five-day work week. In 1930 he established a stunning shoe museum that maps shoe production
from the earliest times to the contemporary age throughout the world. By 1931 there were factories
in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland and in other countries.
In 1932, at the age of 56, Tomáš Baťa died in a plane crash during take off under bad weather
conditions at Zlín Airport. Control of the company was passed to his half-brother, Jan, and his son,
Thomas John Bata, who would go on to lead the company for much of the twentieth century guided
by the founder's moral testament: the Bata Shoe company was to be treated not as a source of
private wealth, but as a public trust, a means of improving living standards within the community and
providing customers with good value for their money. Promise was made to pursue the
entrepreneurial, social and humanitarian ideals of their father.
The Baťa company was apparently the first big enterprise to systematically utilise aircraft for
company purposes, including rapid transport of personnel on business like delivery of maintenance
men and spares to a location where needed, originating the practice of business flying.
Jan Antonín Baťa[edit]
At the time of Tomáš's death, the Bata company employed 16,560 people, maintained 1,645 shops
and 25 enterprises. Jan Antonín Baťa, following the plans laid down by Tomáš Baťa before his
death, expanded the company more than six times its original size throughout Czechoslovakia and
the world. Plants in Britain, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Kenya, Canada and the United
States, followed in the decade. In India, Batanagar was settled near Calcutta and accounted from
the late 1930s nearly 7500 Batamen. The Bata model fitted anywhere, creating, for example,
canteens for vegetarians in India. In exchange, the demands on workers were as strong as in
Europe: "Be courageous. The best in the world is not good enough for us. Loyalty gives us
prosperity & happiness. Work is a moral necessity!" Bata India was incorporated as Bata Shoe
Company Pvt. Ltd in 1931[6] and went on to become Bata India Ltd. in 1973. The Batanagar factory
was the first Indian shoe manufacturing unit to receive the ISO 9001 certification in 1993. [7]
As of 1934, the firm owned 300 stores in North America (after World War II, many of theses stores
were rebranded with the "Barrett Shoes" trademark), a thousand in Asia, more than 4,000 in Europe.
In 1938, the Group employed just over 65,000 people worldwide, including 36% outside
Czechoslovakia and had stakes in the tanning, agriculture, newspaper publishing, railway and air
transport, textile production, coal mining and aviation realms. [citation needed]
Bata-villes[edit]
Company policy initiated under Tomáš Baťa 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 (now Bahňák, part of Otrokovice) in
the Czech Republic, Borovo-Bata (now Borovo Naselje, part of Vukovar in Croatia then in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Bata Park in Möhlin, Switzerland, Bataville in Lorraine,
France, Batawa (Ontario) in Canada, Batatuba (São Paulo), Batayporã and Bataguassu (Mato
Grosso do Sul) in Brazil. East Tilbury[8] in Essex, England, Batapur in Pakistan
and Batanagar and Bataganj in India. There was also a factory in Belcamp, Maryland, USA,
northeast of Baltimore on U.S. Route 40 in Harford County.[9]
The British "Bata-ville" in East Tilbury inspired the documentary film Bata-ville: We Are Not Afraid of
the Future.[10]
World War II[edit]
Just before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Baťa helped re-post his Jewish employees to
branches of his firm all over the world.[11][12] Germany occupied the remaining part of pre-war
Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939; Jan Antonín Baťa then spent a short time in jail but was then
able to leave the country with his family. Jan Antonín Baťa stayed in America from 1939–1940, but
when the USA entered the war, he felt it would be safer for his co-workers and their families back in
occupied Czechoslovakia if he left the United States. He was put on British and US black lists for
doing business with the Axis powers, and in 1941 he emigrated to Brazil. After the war ended, the
Czechoslovak authorities tried Baťa as a traitor, saying he had failed to support the anti-Nazi
resistance. In 1947 he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison. The company's
Czechoslovak assets were also seized by the state – several months before the Communists came
to power. He tried to save as much as possible of the business, submitting to the plans of Germany
as well as financially supporting the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile led by Edvard Beneš.
In occupied Europe a Bata shoe factory was connected to the concentration camp Auschwitz-
Birkenau.[13] The first slave labour efforts in Auschwitz involved the Bata shoe factory.[14] In 1942 a
small camp was established to support the former Bata shoe factory (now under German
administration and renamed "Schlesische Schuh-Werke Ottmuth, A.G") at Chełmek with Jewish
slave labourers.[15] The prisoners, mostly from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, were tasked to
clean the ponds from which the plant drew the water it needed. [16] Also slave workers from the ghetto
of Radom were forced to work at the Bata factory for a soup a day.[17]
Post-war[edit]
The demolished Bata International Centre was the global headquarters during its entire existence (1965-2004)

Tomáš's son Thomas, manager of the buying department of the British Bata Company, was unable
to return until after the war. He was sent to Canada by his uncle Jan, to become the Vice President
of the Bata Import and Export Company of Canada, which was founded in a company town
named Batawa, opened in 1939. Foreign subsidiaries were separated from the parent company, and
ownership of plants in Bohemia and Moravia was transferred to another member of the family.
After World War II, governments in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and Yugoslavia
confiscated and nationalized Bata factories, stripping Bata of its Eastern European assets.
In 1945, the decision was taken that Bata Development Limited in Great Britain would become the
service headquarters of the Bata Shoe Organisation. Now based in the West, Thomas J. Bata, along
with many Czechoslovakian expatriates, began to rebuild the business.
From its new base, the company gradually rebuilt itself, expanding into new markets
throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Rather than organizing these new
operations in a highly centralized structure, Bata established a confederation of autonomous units
that could be more responsive to new markets in developing countries.
Between 1946 and 1960, 25 new factories were built and 1,700 company shops were opened. In
1962, the company had production and sales activities in 79 countries.
In 1964, the Bata moved their headquarters to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1965 moved again, into
an ultra-modern building, the Bata International Centre. The building, located on Wynford Drive, in
suburban North York, Ontario, Canada, was designed by architect John B. Parkin.
In 1979, the Bata family established the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation to operate an international
centre for footwear research and house of a collection that was started by Sonja Bata, Thomas' wife,
in the 1940s. As she travelled the world on business with her husband, she gradually built up a
collection of traditional footwear from the areas she was visiting.
Bata was one of the official sponsors of the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico. Bata also
sponsored 2014 Electronic Sports World Cup.[18]
Czechoslovakia after 1989[edit]
After the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, Thomas J. Baťa arrived as soon as December 1989.
The Czechoslovak government offered him the opportunity to invest in the ailing government-
owned Svit shoe company. Since companies nationalised before 1948 were not returned to their
original owners, the state continued to own Svit and privatised it during voucher privatisation in
Czechoslovakia. Svit's failure to compete in the free market led to decline, and in 2000 Svit went
bankrupt.
Present[edit]
After the global economic changes of the 1990s, the company closed a number of its factories in
developed countries and focused on expanding retail business. Bata moved out of Canada in
several steps. In 2000, it closed its Batawa factory, then in 2001, it closed its Bata retail stores,
retaining its "Athletes World" retail chain. In 2004, the Bata headquarters were moved to Lausanne,
Switzerland and leadership was transferred to Thomas G. Bata, grandson of Tomáš. The notable
Bata headquarters building in Toronto was vacated and eventually demolished to much controversy.
In 2007, the Athletes World chain was sold, ending Bata retail operations in Canada. [19] As of 2013,
Bata maintains the headquarters for its "Power" brand of footwear in Toronto. The Bata Shoe
Museum, founded by Sonja Bata, and operated by a charitable foundation, is also located in
Toronto.
Although no longer chairman of the company, the elder Bata remained active in its operations and
carried business cards listing his title as “chief shoe salesman.” On 1 September 2008 Thomas John
Bata (Tomáš Jan Baťa) died at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto at the age of 93.
Bata estimates that it serves more than 1 million customers per day, employing over 30,000 people,
[20]
 operates more than 5,300 shops, manages 23 production facilities and a retail presence in over
70 countries across the five continents. Bata has a strong presence in countries including India
where it has been present since 1931. Bata India has five factories and two tanneries. The
Mokameh Ghat tannery in Bihar (1952) is the second largest in Asia. [21]
The business is organised in five regions: Africa (with regional office based in Nairobi), Asia Pacific
(with regional office based in Singapore), LatAm (with regional office based in Santiago de Chile),
South Asia (with regional office based in New Delhi) and Europe/Developed Markets (with regional
office based in Padova, Italy).
In April 2019, the consumer forum in India fined Bata Rs 9000 (approx US$129) for asking a
customer to pay Rs 3 extra for a paper bag. The customer approached the forum citing deficiency in
services seeking a refund of Rs 3. The forum observed that it was the brand's responsibility to
provide consumers with eco friendly bags without charging them for it. [22]

Bata brands[edit]
Bata shop (built 1927-9) Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czech Republic - 2005

 Bata (Baťa in Czechia and Slovakia)

 North Star (urban shoes)
 Weinbrenner (premium outdoor shoes)
 Bubblegummers (children's shoes)
 Power (athletic shoes)
 Bata Industrials (work & safety)

Bata labels[edit]
 Ambassador (classic men's shoes)
 Atletico (urban shoes)
 Bata Bullets (sports shoes)
 Bata Comfit (comfort shoes)
 Bata Flexible (comfort shoes)
 Insollia (comfort/women's shoes)
 Marie Claire (women's shoes)
 SunDrops (women's shoes)
 Baby Bubbles (children's shoes)
 Patapata (flip flops)
 Toughees (school shoes)
 Verlon (school shoes)
 Teener (school shoes)
 B-First (school shoes)
 Footin (trendy shoes)
 Urbano (men shoes)
 Tomy Takkies (urban shoes)
 Red Label collection

In popular culture[edit]
 The 1968 Czech film All My Compatriots by Vojtěch Jasný, in a scene set in 1948, refers to
Bata putting small shoemakers out of business.
 Nicosia International Airport which has remained closed by the Turkish invasion of 1974 still
has a 1970s Bata advertisement logo displayed in the arrivals hall.
 In Susan Elderkin's 2000 novel Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains one of the three narrative
voices is Eva, a worker in a Bata factory in Partizánske, Slovakia.[23]
 Emil Zátopek worked in a Bata factory in Zlín.
 Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future is a 2005 documentary produced and directed by
the artistic duo Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope that documents a party of former UK Bata workers
on a coach trip to the headquarters of the company at Zlín. [24]
 The East Tilbury Bata factory features in the 2013 BBC 4 programme, Jonathan Meades:
The Joy of Essex, presented by Jonathan Meades.[25][26]

See also[edit]
 Baťa’s Skyscraper, Zlín
 Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto
 Bata shoe factory (East Tilbury)

References[edit]
1. ^ "Thomas G. Bata | The IMD Global Family Business
Award". globalfamilybusinessaward.com. Retrieved 28 August  2018.
2. ^ Female (Malaysia) (September 1, 2017). "WHO: Thomas George Bata, Chairman, who's
the third generation Bata family member to lead the company". pressreader.com. Retrieved 28
August  2018.
3. ^ "Shoemaker Bata selects new CEO - Bata shoes for all". bata.com. 5 April 2016.
Retrieved 28 August  2018.
4. ^ S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Bata Limited: Private Company Information". Bloomberg.
Retrieved 28 August  2018.
5. ^ Dinger, Ed (2006). International Directory of Company Histories. Gale. Retrieved  28
August  2018. Bata began to reorganize the company, essentially running the business out of
Switzerland.
6. ^ "Bata India - Buy Shoes Online For Men, Women & Kids. Footwear From Leading Brands,
Power, Hush Puppies etc".  bata.in.
7. ^ "Categories". bata.in.
 8. ^ "batamemories". Archived from the original  on 19 November 2002. Retrieved  10
December 2013.
9. ^ "Bata Shoe Factory Belcamp Maryland". Kilduffs.com. Retrieved  2013-11-19.
10. ^ "Entertainment | Road film follows shoe empire". BBC News. 2005-08-28. Retrieved 2013-
11-19.
11. ^ [1] Archived 2016-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
12. ^ Stephen Moss (2002-06-22). "Profile: Tom Stoppard | Film". London:  The Guardian.
Retrieved 2013-11-19.
13. ^ Dwork, Deborah; van Pelt, Robert Jan, Holocaust: A History, W.W.Norton & Company, Inc.,
2002. ISBN 9780393051889
14. ^ Engle Schafft, Gretchen, From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich,
University of Illinois Press, 2004. ISBN 0-252-02930-5
15. ^ Dwork, Deborah; van Pelt, Robert Jan, Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present, New York: W.W.
Norton and Company Inc. ISBN 0-393-03933-1
16. ^ Auschwitz sub-camps- Chelmek
17. ^ Jewish Workers of the Bata Shoe Company in Radom, Poland
18. ^ "Bata Announces Sponsorship Deal with eSports Team". bata.com. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
19. ^ Strauss, Marina (May 18, 2007). "Mogul snaps up Athletes World". The Globe and Mail.
p. B3.
20. ^ About Bata  Archived  2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine bata.com, March 5, 2013.
21. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from  the original on 2014-12-21. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
22. ^ Ch, Manjeet Sehgal; igarhApril 14; April 15, 2019UPDATED; Ist, 2019 09:04. "Bata fined Rs
9000 for asking customer to pay Rs 3 for carry bag".  India Today. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
23. ^ Matthew J. Reynolds (2001-10-08).  "Review: A Slovak-Arizona journey - The Slovak
Spectator". Spectator.sme.sk. Retrieved  2013-11-19.
24. ^ "Bata-ville: We Are Not Afraid of the Future (2005)". IMDb. 1 April 2005.
25. ^ "Jonathan Meades: The Joy of Essex, BBC Four | The Arts Desk".  www.theartsdesk.com.
Retrieved 16 July  2019.
26. ^ "BBC Four - Jonathan Meades: The Joy of Essex". BBC. Retrieved 16 July  2019.

Further reading