Bata made India wear shoes…

How many people wore shoes in India before ‘Bata Shoe Company Private Limited’ was incorporated in 1931 in Konnagar near Calcutta? Probably a much smaller population compared to the rest of the world! Not because Indians were unaccustomed to wearing footwear but because of the cost of a pair of shoes. Footwear making in India dates back to the time of the Indus Valley Civilization. There is also a reference of Bharat carrying his brother Ram’s ‘Padukas’ to Ayodhya and placing them on the throne of his kingdom as a symbol of respect. So the story of a footwear goes well back into Indian Mythology as well as Indian History.

Thomas Bata came to India in 1931 and established a small operation in West Bengal in 1932. In January 1934, the foundation for a new factory was laid which, over the years, has developed into a township popularly known as Batanagar. It was also the first shoe manufacturing facility in India. The Company went public in 1973 and changed its name to Bata India Limited. Currently, the company sells over 45 million pairs of shoes and has cornered 35 per cent market share in the organized sector. Bata India has a retail network of 1250 stores and has a reach that no other footwear company can match. Most Indians believe Bata is an Indian shoe company.

The company was established in 1894 by Thomas Bata, a ninth generation descendant of a family of cobblers and shoemakers in the town of Zlin, Czech Republic. Bata recognized the potential of large-scale production and wanted to make the shoes as cheaply as possible, so that the greatest number of people could afford them. In 1932, Thomas Bata died in a plane crash at the Zlin airport (then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire), attempting to take-off under bad weather conditions. His half-brother Jan Antonin Bata became the head of the company as Thomas Bata’s own son was only 18 years old. Thomas J Bata was born on Sept. 17, 1914.