The Bata company opened its first store on the island in 1935 and continued to carry out entrepreneurial activities there for the following several decades.
- On 19 July 1935, the Bata company opened its first store located on the island – Saint Denis; in 1936 another store – Saint Pierre – was established.
- Business on the island was conducted by a French parent company – Bata S. A. Strasbourg, Département Reunion.
- In 1938 there were two Bata stores on the island (in 1939, a total of 7 shops were recorded there).
- In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of employees in the local stores slightly increased – 25 persons (1955), 21 persons (1961), 37 persons (1965); the number of stores increased from 2 in 1961 to 4 in 1965.
- In the 1960s, sales doubled to 114,000 pairs sold (1959), 169,000 pairs (1961), 271,000 pairs (1965); Bata sales covered a quarter of the shoe consumption demand on the island.
- In 1978, an affiliated company, Bata S. A., operated on the island.
Sources:
- Bata, The Bata Shoe Organisation, 1978
- Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno – State District Archive in Zlín, Czech Republic
- Archives Departementales de La Moselle, Saint-Avold, France