Thomas John Bata

The Bata Shoe organization this week announced the sudden passing of Thomas John Bata, CC at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto at the age of 93. “As ‘Shoemaker to the World’, Tom was a man of outstanding qualities and achievements who had a positive influence on the lives of many millions of people throughout the world,” the statement said.

He was born in Prague and educated in Czechoslovakia, England and Switzerland. His father Tomas founded the Bata Shoe Organization in 1894 and after his father’s premature death in an aircraft accident in 1932, Tom was guided by his late-father’s moral testament: that the Bata Shoe company was to be treated not as a source of private wealth, but as a public trust, a means of improving living standards within the community and providing customers with good value for their money. He promised to pursue the entrepreneurial and humanitarian ideals of his father. This became his life’s work.

Anticipating the Second World War, Tom, together with over 100 families from Czechoslovakia, moved to Canada in 1939 to develop the Bata Shoe Company of Canada centred in a town that still bears his name, Batawa, Ontario.

The Second World War saw many Bata businesses in Europe and the Far East destroyed. After the Second World War, the core business enterprise in Czechoslovakia and other major enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe were nationalized by Communist governments. Tom devoted himself to the rebuilding and growth of the Bata Shoe Organization together with his wife and partner, Sonja. He successfully spearheaded ethical and innovative expansion into new markets throughout Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

“He saw business as a contributor to human well being internationally. Tom always made it a priority to ensure that his businesses not only contributed to the economies of the new markets he entered, but also made a positive difference in the lives of his employees and their communities. Many Bata operations were established with medical, educational and social facilities for Bata employees,” the statement said adding that “Tom is survived by his much loved wife and partner, Sonja (born Wettstein), son Thomas George who is the present CEO and Chairman of the Bata Shoe Organization, three daughters, and their families.”