Batawa is a small community in South-Eastern Ontario, Canada. This planned hamlet was founded by Thomas J. Bata in the 1930s near the city of Trenton and is today part of the city of Quinte West. It is the site of the Bata Shoe Company's old shoe factory, which began operation in 1940.
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Tomas Bata was a believer in the 'commune' concept for manufacturing. The Bata company owned the town, providing accommodations at a reasonable rate to its workers. The company controlled virtually all aspects of the village. Many of the residents were immigrants from Bata's homeland, Czechoslovakia.
Low-cost foreign imports of shoes made Canadian production too costly. The factory closed down, yet the town lives on as a beautiful community on the nearby banks of the Trent River.
There are several books about the Bata's including: Uprooted and Transplanted,[1] the story of a family that immigrated to Canada and worked at the Batawa facility.