The world at Your feet
Bata
Tagline
Net Worth
$1,896,580,000,000
Started in (City)
Zlín
Started in (Country)
Czechia
Incorporation Date
26th December, 1894
Bankruptcy Date
-
Founders
- Tomáš Baťa
- Antonín Baťa
- Anna Baťa
About
Bata Company (originally and in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, known as Baшa) is a Swiss-based multinational shoe and fashion accessories producer and retailer, established in the town of Zlín, today in the Czech Republic. Since the Second World War, its plants in socialist states were nationalized, while its branches in imperialist states remained family-owned. It is currently headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. Bata Europe is the only subsidiary of Bata North America (Toronto), Bata Asia-Pacific-Africa (Singapore), and Bata Latin America (based in Mexico). A family-owned firm, the group is divided into three business units: Bata, Bata Industrials (safety shoes), and AW Lab (sports style). The business is the world's largest shoemaker by volume and has a retail footprint of over 5,300 shops in more than 70 countries and manufacturing facilities in 18 countries.
Beginning
The T. & A. Baшa Shoe Company was founded on 24 August 1894 in the Moravian town of Zlín, Austria-Hungary (today the Czech Republic) by Tomáš Baшa, his brother Antonín and his sister Anna, who had been cobblers for decades. The organization hired 10 full-time staff on a fixed work schedule and a daily weekly basis. In the summer of 1895, Tomáš was faced with financial problems. To overcome these failures, he chose to sew canvas shoes instead of leather. This style of shoes became very famous and helped the business expand to 50 workers. Four years later, the company introduced its first steam-driven equipment, starting a process of accelerated modernization. In 1904, Tomáš read a newspaper story about computers being made in America. He took three jobs and traveled to Lynn, a shoemaking town outside Boston, to learn and appreciate the American mass distribution system. After six months, he returned to Zlín and implemented mechanized manufacturing techniques that enabled the company to become one of the first mass producers of shoes in Europe. Its first mass offering, the "Ba5-007ovky," was a leather and textile shoe for working people that was remarkable for its simplicity, elegance, lightweight and inexpensive price. Its performance helped drive the growth of the company. After Antonín died in 1908, Tomáš brought two of his younger brothers, Jan and Bohuš, into the market. Original export markets and sales companies began in Germany in 1909, followed by the Balkans and the Middle East. Baшa shoes were known to be of high quality and were available in more styles than ever before. By 1912, the company employed more than 600 full-time employees, including several hundred others who worked in their homes in neighboring villages.
Road to Success
Following the structural economic reforms of the 1990s, the company closed a majority of its factories in developing countries and concentrated on expanding the retail industry. In a few moves, Bata passed out of Canada. In 2000, it closed its Batawa plant, then in 2001, it closed its Bata retail stores, keeping its "Athletes World" retail chain. In 2004, the Bata headquarters were relocated to Lausanne, Switzerland, and the leadership was passed to Thomas G. Bata, Tomáš's grandson. The impressive Bata headquarters building in Toronto was abandoned and finally demolished to a great deal of uproar. In 2007, the Athlete World chain was sold and Bata's retail activities in Canada ended. As of 2013, Bata has the headquarters of its "Power" shoe brand in Toronto. The Bata Shoe Museum, established by Sonja Bata and run by a charitable foundation, is also based in Toronto. While no longer the company's president, Elder Bata remained involved in its activities and held business cards showing his role as "chief shoe salesman." Thomas John Bata (Tomáš Jan Baшa) died at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto at the age of 93 on 1 September 2008. Bata reports distribution presence in more than 70 countries across the five continents. Bata has a large presence in countries such as India, where it has been present since 1931. Bata that services more than 1 million consumers a day, employs more than 30,000 employees, runs more than 5,300 stores, maintains 23 manufacturing facilities and has India has five factories, two tanneries. The Mokameh Ghat tannery of Bihar (1952) is the second largest in Asia. The sector is structured in five regions: Africa (with a regional office based in Nairobi), Asia Pacific (with a regional office based in Singapore), Latin America (with a regional office based in Santiago de Chile), South Asia (with a regional office based in New Delhi) and Europe/Developed Markets (with a regional office based in Zlín). In April 2019, the Indian Consumer Forum fined Bata Rs 9000 (approx. US$129) for telling the customer to pay Rs 3 extra for a paper bag. The consumer contacted the forum alleging a shortfall in facilities demanding reimbursement of Rs 3. The Forum noted that it was the duty of the brand to supply customers with eco-friendly bags without asking for them.
Challenges
In 1914, with the start of World War I, the organization experienced major developments as a result of military orders. From 1914 to 1918, the number of staff of the company rose tenfold. The firm opened its own stores in Zlín, Prague, Liberec, Vienna, and Pilsen, among other locations. In the global economic recession that followed World War I, Czechoslovakia's newly developed nation was especially hard hit. With the currency devalued by 75%, demand for goods decreased, productivity decreased and unemployment was at an all-time high. Tomáš Baшa reacted to the crisis by slashing the price of Bata shoes by half. The company's workforce committed to a temporary cut of 40% in wages; in exchange, the company offered half-priced food, clothes, and other essentials. He also launched one of the first profit-sharing schemes, converting all staff into partners with a mutual stake in the growth of the venture. The consumer's reaction to the price drop was drastic. Although most of the rivals were forced to close because of the crisis in production between 1923 and 1925, the demand for cheap shoes increased exponentially. The company also boosted production and employed more staff. Zlín became a veritable manufacturing town, a "Baшaville" occupying many hectares of land. At the site were clustered tanneries, a brickyard, a chemical factory, a heavy machinery plant and a repair shop, rubber manufacturing factories, a paper pulp and cardboard factory (for packaging production), a cloth factory (for shoes and socks liners), a clothing factory, a power plant, and agricultural operations to meet the needs of food and energy. Staff, "Ba5-007amen" and their families had at their disposal all the requisite regular facilities, including accommodation, stores, schools, and hospitals.
Failures
Tomáš' son Thomas J. Bata, manager of the British Bata Company's purchasing department, was unable to return until after the war. He was sent to Canada by his uncle Jan to become vice president of the Bata Import and Export Company of Canada, established in the town of Batawa, which opened in 1939. Foreign branches were split from the parent company and the ownership of the plants in Bohemia and Moravia was passed to another family member. After World War II, the governments of Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, and Yugoslavia seized and nationalized Bata plants, stripping Bata of its Eastern European assets. In 1945, it was decided that Bata Development Limited would become the service headquarters of the Bata Shoe Organization in Great Britain. Now based in the West, Thomas J. Bata, along with many Czechoslovak expatriates, began to restore the company. From its new headquarters, the corporation has increasingly revived itself, spreading into new markets throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Instead of managing these new activities in a heavily structured system, Bata formed a confederation of independent units that could be more open to new markets in developed countries. Between 1946 and 1960, 25 new factories were constructed and 1,700 company stores were opened. The firm had manufacturing and distribution operations in 79 countries in 1962. In 1964, Bata moved its headquarters to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1965, they were relocated back to an ultra-modern hotel, the Bata International Centre. The house, located on Wynford Drive, North York suburb, Ontario, Canada, was designed by architect John B. Parkin. In 1979, the Bata family founded the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation to run the International Center for Footwear Research and the Collection House, which began in the 1940s with Sonja Bata, Thomas's wife. When she traveled the globe on business with her friends, she eventually built up a series of traditional shoes from the places she visited. Bata was one of the official sponsors of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City. Bata has already funded the 2014 Electronic Sports World Cup. In November 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, Thomas J. Baшa returned as early as December 1989. The Czechoslovak government gave him the chance to invest in the sick state-owned Svit shoe company. Although the corporations nationalized before 1948 were not returning to their original owners, the state continued to own Svit and privatized it after the privatization of vouchers in Czechoslovakia. The inability of Svit to survive in the free market led to a downturn, and Svit went bankrupt in 2000.
Achievements
- Most Admired Footwear Brand of the year 2017
- AFAQ’s 2017 India’s Buzziest Brands
- DUN & BRADSTREET Corporate Award 2017
- The Most Trusted Brand (Retail) - Brand Equity recognized Bata into the
- Udyog Rattan Award - The Institute of Economics Studies honoured Mr. Rajeev Gopalakrishnan and the Company with the Certificate of Excellence and Gold Medal at the
- The Most Attractive Brand at the 11th Position - Most attractive brand at the 11th position - 2013.
Subsidies
- Bata (BN) B.V.
- Bata Nederland B.V.
- Leader AG
- Calzado Sandak Sa De Cv
- Bata Shoe (Singapore) Private Ltd.
CEOs
- Sandeep Kataria