Bata ends classic shoemaking in Europe at Czech factory

Czech footwear group Bata is closing the last factory in Europe that produced classic shoes under the brand — the plant in Dolní Němčí, in southeastern Moravia, in the Slovácko region. 92 employees will lose their jobs, company spokesman Petr Souček said.

“The factory's structure and capacity no longer match current market demand. The company does not expect to return to its former production volumes,” Souček explained. According to Bata board member Andrea Montagnoli, keeping such production profitable is impossible under today's market conditions.

Production moved to Asia and Africa long ago

In Europe, the classic Bata-branded shoemaking craft is becoming a thing of the past, but the brand keeps operating worldwide: the company currently makes shoes in 12 countries. The centre of production shifted to Asia and Africa long ago — factories run in India and Bangladesh, with Bata operating two plants in each country. The company also makes shoes in Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as in South America — in Bolivia and Colombia — and even in Australia and New Zealand.

Only one working factory remains in Europe

After the Dolní Němčí plant closes, the only exception left on the map of Bata's European production will be the factory in the Dutch town of Best, near Eindhoven. But even that one has little to do with classic shoes: it belongs to the specialised Bata Industrials division and makes only heavy-duty protective and work footwear for construction, logistics and industry.

The story of the Dutch factory is its own fascinating chapter. When company founder Tomáš Baťa was planning to enter the Dutch market in the early 1930s, he did not just buy a cheap plot of heathland by a railway and a canal — the already world-famous shoemaker wanted to transplant his entire Zlín philosophy to Best. After Tomáš Baťa died in a plane crash on 12 July 1932, his half-brother Jan Antonín Baťa carried the idea forward. For the workers in Best, a genuine copy of Zlín was built — the Batadorp quarter, with typical flat-roofed houses, its own school, a medical centre and a football club.

Zlín loses its historic warehouses

For Bata's home town of Zlín, 2026 has turned out to be a year full of both nostalgia and painful losses. In spring, according to Souček, the company moved its warehouse out of the landmark Building 34 in the Bata complex and relocated it to a new logistics partner in the Central Bohemian Region. Coincidence or not, this happened just months before a fire that summer destroyed the eleven-storey building, which later had to be demolished entirely.

Souček's account was confirmed by Marcel Schmidt, a representative of Cream Group, the owner of the collapsed Building 34. “Bata used to keep its central shoe warehouse for stores across the Czech Republic in Building 34. But in April the company moved to a central warehouse in the Central Bohemian Region, and we were left with only a backup warehouse of around a thousand square metres,” Schmidt said.

According to Souček, after the move, only an auxiliary warehouse remained in Building 34, storing store equipment, furniture and archives — all of it destroyed in the fire. “The value of this loss for the company is not so much financial as historical,” he added.

Despite the end of production in Moravia and the loss of its historic warehouses, Bata is not leaving Zlín. The town beneath Tlustá Hill remains the moral and administrative centre of the whole company: it is home to Bata's Czech headquarters, two flagship stores operate there, and the founder's legacy is preserved by the Tomáš Baťa Foundation.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz