Bata is a private company founded in 1894 in Zlin, Czech Republic that is a leading manufacturer of footwear and clothing, with its headquarters now in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company grew rapidly in the early 1900s through innovations in production including mechanization and mass production techniques. Bata experienced periods of growth during World Wars I and II but also faced challenges like factory seizures during Communist rule in Czechoslovakia and using forced labor in Nazi-occupied Europe.

1. Company profile
Name of company Bata
Form of organisation Private Company
Registered office Lausanne, Switzerland.
Date of establishment 24 August, 1894
Group of company Bata
Chairman Thomas George Bata
Chief Executive Officer Alexis Nasard
Administration
Name of plant Footwear
Clothing

2. History
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 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 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.
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 Bata 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
World warI
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 Bata’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 Bata 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.
World warII
Just before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Bata helped re-post
his Jewish employees to branches of his firm all over the world. Germany occupied the

3. remaining part of pre-war Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939; Jan Antonín Bata then spent a
short time in jail but was then able to leave the country with his family. Jan Antonín Bata
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 Bata 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. The first slave labour efforts in Auschwitz involved the Bata shoe factory. 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. The prisoners, mostly from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands,
were tasked to clean the ponds from which the plant drew the water it needed. Also slave
workers from the ghetto of Radom were forced to work at the Bata factory for a soup a day.

5. Mission
 Mission statements express the philosophy of the company with respect to the
business in specific and society in general. Once the mission statement of the
company is finalized and adapted. It provides a readymade guideline to employees of
the organisation about its principles, policies and practices.
 Bata will provide its products and services to all the groups in the community will
also provide the finest quality through customer involvement.
Vision
 Vision is that igniting spark that can inspire and energies people to do better. The
focus of vision is to reach out hungrily for the future and drag it into the present.
 Bata today wishes to reposition itself as a market driven, fashion, conscious lifestyle.
Focus on a variety of customer groups.

6. Products
 North Star (urban shoes)
 Weinbrenner (premium outdoor shoes)
 Bubble gummers (children's shoes)
 Power (athletic shoes)
 Bata Industrials (work & safety)
1. North Star (Urban shoes)
2. Weinbrenner (Premium outdoor shoes)

7. 3. Bubble gummers (children's shoes)

8. 4. Power (athletic shoes)
5. Bata Industrials (work & safety)

9. Organisation Structure
President
R&D Finance Marketing Manufacturing
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Design Accounting Sales Line
Supervisor
Development Purchasing Customer Production
Service Teams
Testing Distribution

10. Awards & Achievements