New Delhi. Footwear giant Bata Shoe Organization has announced the appointment of its India CEO Sandeep Kataria as the CEO at the global level on November 30. The company has said in a statement that Kataria is the first Indian to work on a global role in Bata. He will replace Alexis Nasard. Nasard is leaving his post after working for 5 years. Let us tell you that Kataria joined the company in 2017 as the CEO of Bata India. Kataria has been made the global CEO of Bata with immediate effect.
Know who is Sandeep Kataria
Kataria, who did engineering from IIT-Delhi, is a gold medalist of the 1993 PGDBM batch from XLRI. He has 24 years of work experience. He has worked in Unilever, Yum Brands and Vodafone in India and Europe. Kataria worked in consumer goods company Unilever for 17 years. Before joining Bata India, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Vodafone India.
Sandeep joined Bata India in July 2017 and was made the President of the India region two years later. Under Kataria’s leadership, Bata India’s profit doubled. Topline growth also remained in double digits. He attracted the youth by presenting Bata in a new look and flavor. In 2019-20, Bata India’s net profit was Rs 327 crore and revenue was Rs 3053 crore.
The first factory was opened in India before independence
Bata has been the king of shoe manufacturing companies in India for a long time. Although it is an MNC company, its heart is completely Indian. This brand entered the country about 90 years ago. Bata opened its first factory in Konnagar, West Bengal, which later shifted to Bataganj. After Bataganj Bihar, five factories were started including Faridabad (Haryana), Pinna (Karnataka) and Hosur (Tamil Nadu). In all these places, cheap, comfortable and strong shoes are made from leather, rubber, canvas and PVC. Bata is such a shoe brand in India, which has its own loyal middle class customer community.
Know how Bata became the owner of the hearts of the world
Bata is a company of Czech Republic. It was started by Thomas Bata in 1894. The company came to India in search of rubber and leather. The company’s business started from Kolkata in 1939. The country’s first shoe machine was installed in Batanagar. Today India is the second largest market for Bata. Bata was listed in June 1973. Its IPO came at a price of Rs 30/share. Bata has 1375 retail stores in the country in which 8500 employees work. This year the company sold 5 crore shoes. The company operates in 90 countries. It has a total of 30000 employees and 5000 stores. 10 lakh customers visit the company’s stores daily.
Tomas Bata Explained
The story of a bankrupt laborer becoming an owner
The Bata family, living in a small town of Zlin in the European country Czechoslovakia, had been making a living by making shoes for generations. Years passed amidst struggles. In 1894, the fortunes of this family changed when son Tomas dreamt big. He made his sister Anna and brother Antonin his partners to make the family business professional. With great difficulty, the siblings convinced their mother and got 320 dollars from her. After this, they rented two rooms in the village itself, took two sewing machines on installments, bought raw material on loan and started the business.
Learned work as a laborer in a shoe company
Thomas G. Bata did not let frustration overwhelm him after his siblings left the business and in just 6 years he brought the business to such a level that the shop started becoming too small. Thomas had to take a huge loan to expand the business. There came a time when he was on the verge of bankruptcy due to not repaying the loan on time. In such a situation, Thomas and his three employees worked as laborers in a shoe company in New England for six months and learned the work. During this time, he closely observed the work of many companies and returned to his country after understanding their working system. Here he started working in a new way. In 1912, Thomas employed 600 laborers and provided work to hundreds in their homes. He established exclusive Bata stores while planning sales along with production.
After the World War, Bata made tremendous progress and expansion by reducing prices. Bata’s shoe production increased by about 15 times and spread to about 27 countries. India was one of them. The retail chain of Bata Stores also became a hit and hundreds of its franchises started opening. During this time, Bata, thinking 50 years ahead, expanded the company by making products like socks, leather goods, chemicals, tires, rubber goods, apart from shoes. Now Bata Shoe was no longer just a company, it was established as a group. Bata soon became the world’s largest shoe exporter. Thomas Bata built his headquarters in a building which is considered to be the tallest concrete building in Europe. On July 12, 56-year-old Thomas Bata died in an air accident. Unfortunately, this accident with his plane happened after it collided with the chimney of one of his buildings.
Tags: Business news, Success Story
FIRST PUBLISHED : December 1, 2020, 10:05 IST