Tomáš Baťa

Tomáš Baťa
Tomáš Baťa
Born	3 April 1876 Zlín, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
Died	12 July 1932 (aged 56) Otrokovice, Czechoslovakia
Occupation	Founder of Bata Shoes
Children	Thomas J. Bata

Tomáš Baťa (Czech pronunciation: [ˈtomaːʃ ˈ'baca]) (3 April 1876 in Zlín, Moravia – 12 July 1932) was a Czech entrepreneur, founder of the Bata Shoes company, one of the world's biggest multinational retailers, manufacturers and distributors of footwear and accessories.

Tomáš Baťa established the organization in Zlín on 24 August 1894 with 800 Austrian gulden, some $320, inherited from his mother. His brother Antonín Baťa and sister Anna were partners in the startup firm T. & A. Bata Shoe Company. Though the organization was newly established, the family had a long history of shoemaking, spanning eight generations and over three hundred years. This heritage helped boost the popularity of his new firm very quickly. In 1904 Baťa worked on an assembly line in the United States and brought his acquaintance with the method back to Zlín. With modern production and long distance retailing, Baťa modernized the shoemaking industry and the company surged ahead in production and profits right from its nascent years.

Eventually, Tomas Baťa obtained sole control over the company in 1908 after his brother Antonín Baťa died from tuberculosis. After Antonin's death, Tomas brought into the company two of his younger brothers, Jan and Bohuš into the business. World War I created a booming demand for military shoes, and the company quickly became one of the major contemporary footwear brands. During the interwar period Tomas Baťa again visited the New World to observe progress at the River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Upon his return the company began to look towards decentralizing operations. Baťa also exhibited his business acumen, with his initiatives towards producing low-cost shoes for the general public, whose purchasing power had been significantly reduced in the aftermath of the war. Factories and companies were set up in other countries including Poland, Yugoslavia, India, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. These factories were made self-sufficient and autonomous in their design, production and distribution strategies, in a move to focus them towards catering to the local population. By the early 1930s, under Tomas Bata's leadership the Baťa enterprise and Czechoslovakia were the world's leading footwear exporters.

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