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Bata, a Shoe Giant in the Netherlands: What Dutch Newspapers Wrote About Tomáš Bat’a and the Establishment of the Batadorp
Abstract
When Tomáš Bat’a died in a plane crash on 12 July 1932, he had already built a large international shoe empire. Largely, this was due to his revolutionary business management, namely rationalisation of production. By taking control of the entire production process in one place and having regard for employee welfare in the form of housing, training and leisure, the Bata company was able to offer very competitive prices. This allowed Bata to open shops worldwide in the 1920s and from the early 1930s – owing to protectionist measures during the global economic crisis – to open factories, including company towns copied from the home town of Zlín. This also happened in the Netherlands, where Batadorp arose in 1934 near the Dutch town of Best. This article first looks at the image Dutch newspapers painted of the industrial pioneer Tomáš Bat’a after his death in 1932. It then examines the coverage of the plans for the establishment of a Bata factory near Best – all in times of economic crisis in general and in the Dutch shoe industry in particular.
Keywords:
Tomáš Bat’a, Batadorp, shoe industry, rationalisation, protectionism, company townDetails
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.