In Italy the Bata Shoe Company began its business activities by founding own stores at the beginning of the 1930s. In the following decade production in a new Italian factory started, however it was only temporary (1941-1944). After the Second World War the Bata Company was present in Italy through its retail store network.
- In the second half of 1931 the Bata Company opened the first stores in the Italian territory in Fiume (Rijeka) and Zara (Zadar)
- In 1932, there were Bata stores in the following cities: Bolzano, Messina, Fiume (Rijeka), Zara (Zadar), Abbazia (Opatija).
- In the year 1933, a trading company S. A. I. VECABA, Abbazia (Società Anonima Italiana per la vendita delle Calzature „Baťa“, Abbazia, today Opatija in Croatia) was established; the company was transformed in 1942 to SAIFA (Società Anonima Immobiliare Fiumana, Abbazia),
- By the year 1939 the number of Bata stores in Italy had increased to 20.
- On 25th May 1939 a company SICLA, Roma (Società Italiana Commerciale L´Ancora) was set up for wholesale purchase and sale of various goods. The company office is later moved to Milano.
- On 15th July 1940 a company VECA, Fabbrica Calzature, Ferrara was set up; it founded a shoemaking factory and took over other activities from the company VECABA (SAIFA); the general manager of VECA and VECABA (SAIFA) was Mario Rocco.
- In factory and stores the company VECA employed: in 1941 – 416 persons; 1943 – 683 persons; the sale of footwear increased from 376,000 pairs (1941) to 703,759 pairs (in 1943); toward end of the war the Bata Company ended its shoe production in the local factory.
- After the war the business in Italy became a part of the Western Bata Organization.
- The retail network was controlled by a new Bata Company in Padova.
- In the year 1992 the Company owned the following firms in Italy: Compar, Padova and Product Development Centre, Padova.
- The Bata retail network in Italy in the second half of the 20th century was enriched by a remarkable product development center in Padova, with dozens of creatives preparing new collections for the Bata stores; another product development and education center was founded in Milan.
Sources:
- Martin Marek, Čas na expanzi? Působení Baťova koncernu v severní Itálii za druhé světové války, In: Jihočeský sborník historický, České Budějovice 2012, s. 163-182. ISSN 0323-004X
- Moravský zemský archiv v Brně – Státní okresní archiv Zlín, Česko
