Bata ShoesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBata

TypePrivate company

IndustryRetailandManufacturing

FoundedZln,Austria-Hungary(1894)

Founder(s)Tom Baa

HeadquartersLausanne, Switzerland

Area servedWorldwide

ProductsFootwear,ClothingandFashion accessory

Owner(s)Bata Family

Websitewww.bata.com

Bata(also known asBata Shoe Organisation) is a family-owned globalfootwearandfashion accessorymanufacturer and retailer with acting headquarters located inLausanne,Switzerland. Organised into three business units: Bata Europe, based in Italy; Bata Emerging Market (Asia, Pacific, Africa and Latin America), based in Singapore, and Bata Protective (worldwide B2B operations), based in the Netherlands, the organisation has aretailpresence in over 70 countries and production facilities in 26 countries.Contents[hide] 1Origins and history 1.1Foundation 1.2World War I 1.3Shoemaker to the world 1.4International growth 1.5Jan Antonn Baa 1.6Bata-villes 1.7World War II 1.8Post-war 1.9Czechoslovakia after 1989 1.10Present 2Bata brands 3In popular culture 4See also 5References 6External linksOrigins and history[edit]Foundation[edit]The T. & A. Baa Shoe Company was founded in 1894 inZln(thenAustro-Hungarian Empire, today theCzech Republic) byTom Baa(Czech pronunciation:[toma baca]), his brother Antonn and his sister Anna, whose family had beencobblersfor generations. The company employed 10 full-time employees with a fixed work schedule and a regular weekly wage, a rare find in its time.

Tom, Antonn and their sister Anna BaaIn the summer of 1895, Tom found himself facing financial difficulties, and debts abounded. To overcome these serious setbacks, Tom 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 modernization. In 1904 Tom Baa 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 companys growth and, by 1912, Bata was employing 600 full-time workers, plus another several hundred who worked out of their homes in neighboring villages.World War I[edit]In 1914, with the outbreak ofWorld War I, the company had a significant development due to military orders. From 1914 to 1918 the number of Baas employees increased ten times. The company opened its own stores inZln,Prague,Liberec,ViennaandPilsen, among other towns.In the globaleconomic slumpthat followedWorld War I, the newly created country ofCzechoslovakiawas 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. Tomas Bata responded to the crisis by cutting the price of Bata shoes in half. The companys 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 firstprofit sharinginitiative 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 due to 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. Zlin became a veritable factory town, a "Bataville" covering several acres.On the site were grouped tanneries, a brickyard, a chemical factory, a mechanical equipment plant andrepair 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 a farming activities to cover both food and energy needs... Horizontal and vertical integration.Workers, "Batamen", and their families had at their disposal all the necessary everyday lifeservices: housing, shops, schools, hospital, etc.The T. & A. Baa Shoe Company

Bata's Skyscraper

Batovka Shoe

Bata in Zlin

Bata employee housing

1922 Advertising

Bata Store in the 1920's

Bata Store in the 1920's

International growth[edit]

Tom Baa

Lockheed 10 Electraexecutive aircraft operated prewar by Bata in EuropeBata 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), forest farming (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 Tom Baa displayed his business acumen by figuring out how much turnover he needed to make with his annual plan, weekly plans and daily plans. Baa 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 Baa prices numbers ending with a nine rather than with a whole number. His business skyrocketed. Soon Baa 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 percent. In 1927 production lines were installed, and the company had its own hospital. By the end of 1928, the companys head factory was composed of 30 buildings. Then the entrepreneur created educational organizations such as the Baa 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, England, the Netherlands, Poland and in other countries.In 1932, at the age of 56, Tom Baa died in a plane crash during take off under bad weather conditions at Zln 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 their fathers 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 Baa company was apparently the first big enerprise to systematically utilise aircraft for company purposes, including rapid transport of lesser personnel on business like delivery of maintenance men and spares to a location where needed, originating the practice of business flying.Jan Antonn Baa[edit]At the time of Tom's death, the Bata company employed 16,560 people, maintained 1,645 shops and 25 enterprises. Jan Baa, following the plans laid down by Tomas Bata before his death, expanded the company more than six times its original size throughoutCzechoslovakiaand the world. Plants inBritain, theNetherlands,Yugoslavia,Brazil,Kenya,Canadaand theUnited States, followed in the decade.InIndia,Batanagarwas settled nearCalcuttaand accounted from the late 1930s nearly 7500 Batamen.The Bata model fitted anywhere, creating, for example,canteens for vegetariansin India and respecting the caste system.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!"As of 1934, the firm owned 300 stores inNorth America, a thousand inAsia, more than 4,000 inEurope.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.Bata-villes[edit]Company policy initiated under Tomas Baa was to set up villages around the factories for the workers and to supply schools and welfare. These villages includeBatadorpin theNetherlands, Baovany (present-dayPartiznske) andSvitin Slovakia, Baov (now Bahk, part ofOtrokovice) in theCzech Republic, Borovo-Bata (nowBorovo Naselje, part ofVukovarinCroatiathen in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Bata Park inMhlin, Switzerland,BatavilleinLorraine, France,Batawain Canada,East Tilbury[1]in Essex, England,Batapurin Pakistan andBatanagarandBataganjin India. There was also a factory inBelcamp,Maryland, USA, northeast ofBaltimoreonU.S. Route 40inHarford County.[2]The British "Bata-ville" inEast Tilburyinspired the documentary filmBata-ville: We Are Not Afraid of the Future.[3]World War II[edit]Just before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Bata helped re-post his Jewish employees to branches of his firm all over the world.[4][5]Germany occupied the remaining part of pre-war Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939; Jan Antonn Baa then spent a short time in jail but was then able to leave the country with his family. Jan Antonn Baa stayed in the Americas from 19391940, but when America 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 list. He tried to save as much as possible of the business, submitting to the plans of Germany as well as financially supporting theCzechoslovak Government-in-Exileled byEdvard Bene.At occupied Europe a Bata shoe factory was connected to the concentration campAuschwitz-Birkenau.[6]The first slave labour efforts in Auschwitz involved the Bata shoe factory.[7]In 1942 a small camp was established to support the Bata shoe factory atChemekwith Jewish slave labourers.[8]Post-war[edit]

Bata International Centre1965-2004Tomas' sonThomasmanager of the buying department of the English Bata Company was unable to return until after the war. He was sent toCanadaby his uncle Jan, to become the Vice President of the Bata Import and Export Company of Canada, which was founded in a company town namedBatawa, opened in 1939. Foreign subsidiaries were separated from the mother 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. From its new base in Canada, the company gradually rebuilt itself, expanding into new markets throughoutAsia, theMiddle East,AfricaandLatin 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.In 1964, the Bata Shoe Organisation moved their headquarters toToronto, Canada and in 1965 moved again, into an ultra-modern building, theBata International Centre. The building, located on Wynford Drive, in suburbanNorth Yorkwas designed by architectJohn B. Parkin.Czechoslovakia after 1989[edit]After theVelvet Revolutionin November 1989, Thomas J. Baa arrived as soon as December 1989. The Czechoslovak government offered him the opportunity to invest in the ailing government-ownedSvitshoe company. Since companiesnationalisedbefore 1948 were not returned to their original owners, the state continued to own Svit andprivatisedit duringvoucher privatisationin 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 manufacturing 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. 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 toThomas G. Bata, grandson ofTom Baa. The Bata headquarters building in Toronto was vacated and eventually demolished. In 2007, the Athletes World chain was sold, ending Bata retail operations in Canada.[9]As of 2013, Bata maintains the headquarters for its "Power" brand of footwear in Toronto. TheBata 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 Mr. Bata remained active in its operations and carried business cards listing his title as chief shoe salesman. In 2008, Thomas John Bata died atSunnybrook Health Sciences Centrein Toronto at the age of 93.Bata estimates that it serves more than 1 million customers per day, employing over 30,000 people,[10]operates more than 5,000 retail stores, manages 27 production facilities and a retail presence in over 90 countries.

The red indicates countries where Bata operatesBata brands[edit]

Bata StoreWenceslas SquareinPrague, theCzech Republic- 2005 Bata(Baa in the Czech Republic) Bata Comfit(comfort shoes) Ambassador(classic men's shoes) North Star(urban Shoes) Weinbrenner(premium outdoor shoes) Marie Claire(women's shoes) SunDrops(women's shoes) Bubblegummers(children's shoes) Baby Bubbles(children's shoes) Safari(desert shoes) Power(athletic shoes) Patapata(flip flops) Toughees(school shoes) Verlon(school shoes) Teener(school shoes) Bata Industrials(work & safety footwear)In popular culture[edit] The 1968 Czech filmAll My CompatriotsbyVojtch Jasn, in a scene set in 1948, refers to Bata putting small shoemakers out of business. InSusan Elderkin's 2000 novelSunset Over Chocolate Mountainsone of the three narrative voices is Eva, a worker in a Bata factory inPartiznske, Slovakia.[11] Emil Ztopekworked in a Bata factory inZln.