The Chemosvit Group has a rich history. The company, in its current form, is a result of the effort of its founder Jan Antonín Baťa.
He founded the production plant in Svit in 1934, which began to produce the viscose rayon. He employed people he trained himself. Satisfaction and ongoing training of employees were important to Baťa. Almost all buildings he built are still used actively. The technological processes and well thought-out systems he used were a great stepping stone, and some of them remained in use in the production of packaging until today.
Who was Jan Antonín Baťa?
Jan Antonín Baťa was born in Uherské Hradište in 1898. In 1934, he decided to build a new plant for the production of raw viscose rayon in the foothills of the High Tatras, which brought earnings and development opportunities to this region.
A. Baťa helped to increase employment in Czechoslovakia by almost 15,000 people and 80,000 people in his plants across the world. If the demand for his products was lacking, he never dismissed his employees but sought other solutions.
He built research capacity, study institutes and his own work schools. Before the war, in 1939, he went into exile and settled in Brazil, where he also founded new cities.
During the war 1939–1945, J. A. Baťa secretly contributed to the Czech resistance movement, Czech government in exile in the United Kingdom as well as preparation and material organisation of the Slovak National Uprising. However, he refused to officially join the resistance movement to protect his employees in former Czechoslovakia and other European countries.
After the war, J. A. Baťa was blacklisted for having entered into negotiations with the Nazis. In the trial in 1947, the national court in Praha sentenced him in absentia to 15 years imprisonment and confiscated his property without any compensation. The 1947 judgement was set aside in re-trial in Prague on 25 June 2007. It was also set aside by a Slovak court in May 2013.
Jan Antonín Baťa lived in Batatuba, a city in Brazil he founded. He died on 23 August 1965 in São Paulo.
Even today, the Chemosvit Group strives to maintain Baťa’s entrepreneurial spirit and desire to always come up with something new, while respecting its employees.
