Bata Shoes
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Retail and Manufacturing |
| Founded | August 24, 1894 in Zlín, Czech Republic |
| Founder | Tomáš Baťa |
| Headquarters | Lausanne, Switzerland |
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Area served
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Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America |
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Key people
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Christopher Kirk (Chairman) Alexis Nasard (CEO) |
| Products | Footwear, Clothing and Accessories |
| Owner | Bata Family |
| Website | www |
Bata (also known as Bata Shoe Organization) is a family-owned global footwear and fashion accessory manufacturer and retailer with acting headquarters located in Lausanne, Switzerland. Organized 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 organization has a retail presence of over 5200 retail stores in more than 70 countries and production facilities in 18 countries.
The T. & A. Baťa Shoe Company was founded on the 24th of August 1894 in Zlín (Moravia, 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, a rare find in its time.
In the summer of 1895, Tomáš found himself facing financial difficulties, and debts abounded. To overcome these serious setbacks, Tomáš 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 Tomáš 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, Tomas 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.
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Wikipedia