Word: bata
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Bombs for Bata. But Jan Bata was stirred by out-of-date facts. During the war, Bata, which owned most of Zlin (estimated present pop. 35,000) had indeed been close to bankruptcy. It had suffered from manpower shortages, lack of materials, and Allied bombs (60% of shoe production was knocked out). When the Czech Government nationalized Bata, along with most of Czechoslovakia's big industries, there were only 800 employes at work producing wooden shoes. In the first two months of operation, nationalized Bata lost some 132,000,000 crowns...
...trouble, crowed critics of nationalization, was that Bata's managers were picked for their politics, not for their business experience. They pointed to Ivan Holy, 34-year-old general manager of Bata, who got his job chiefly because he was Communist representative of Zlin in the Czech Parliament. His only previous shoemaking experience was as manager of exports to Turkey for Bata during the war. But his Communist connections came in handy in wangling materials and machines from countries dominated by Russia. And Holy was smart enough to surround himself with old Bata employes...
Nothing for Jan. By last week, Bata was on its knees, might soon be back on its feet. Bata had 13,500 at work turning out 550,000 pairs of shoes a week (about half of its best prewar production). In all Bata's Zlin enterprises, stockings, tires, machine tools, etc., there were 50,000 at work, second largest payroll in Czechoslovakia (first: Skoda). And in the first half of 1946 Bata National Enterprise reported a profit of 200,000,000 crowns...
This will do Jan Bata himself little good. In the records of the new Czech Government he is listed as a collaborationist, mainly because he kept his factories running during the war and did not support the Czech Government in exile. So he will probably not be paid for his 40% interest in Bata. There are still Bata factories in England and Canada, controlled by Bata's kin. But he claims that the U.S. plant which he built at Belkamp, Md. and which was operated by the Alien Property Custodian during the war no longer belongs to him (just...
...these plants, and many another shoe factory, may soon face competition from the nationalized plant at Zlin. Though many of Zlin's shoes are now going to Russia in exchange for raw materials, Bata is also exporting to Sweden and Balkan countries. And buyers from the U.S., who once bought 40% of Bata's shoes, have already descended on Zlin. But Bata has no shoes for the U.S. as yet, and does not know when it will have. When it does, Bata may find it much harder to undersell U.S. shoemakers. Since 1939, the retail price of Bata...