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Bata NewsMr. Thomas G. Bata, the Chairman of BATA Shoe Group,accepted an interview by CCTV.COM
20.5. 2010
Mr. Thomas G. Bata, the Chairman of BATA Shoe Group,accepted an interview by CCTV.COM
http://www.2010expotv.com/special/bata/20100510/104422.shtml
Press: Welcome!
Thomas G. Bata: Thank You!
Press: Bata is the first company in China launched online program with cctv.com to “congratulates World Expo”. As the leader of the global organization, what do you think the World Expo selected China as the host country this year?
Thomas G. Bata: First of all, we are very supportive of the events like Expo. Because it brings people together from all around the world, and I believe that it’s a great opportunity for people to visit and understand different cultures and different countries. It brings better understanding amongst people and better understanding and generates more happiness and more prosperity. I personally had a chance to have visited Expos in the past in New York and in Brussels. My son visited Expo yesterday and enjoyed it very much, so it is obviously a program which we are very happy to do, to support the Expo here in China. Clearly China is the country which is leading in many ways and I think it is only obvious that China be selected to have this year’s Expo.
Press: Bata has a long history, but Bata China is still young. Can you provide your opinion on China market, and what is your expectation for Bata China in the future?
Thomas G. Bata: Well, China has made such exceptional progress. I came to China the first time 15 years ago, and it’s totally unrecognizable, compared to that time. The exciting thing for Bata is that we’ve established about 4 years ago with our first store and we have over 260 stores, and as you see our facility is growing here, and we expect to continue growing in the market place. We are an international company; we have presence in many countries. But clearly with such a large population, the one with standard of living increasing so fast and it’s a country that we hope to have long presence in the future. The other exciting thing is that if you noticed here we have been building a much bigger center for product development and technology. So we also see in China as not only a market which we hope to develop and but also a center for resources for really helping us grow in other activities worldwide.
Press: What’s your point of view of worldwide footwear industry development? What’s the trend in the next five years?
Thomas G. Bata: The good news is that people will have to always wear shoes, and the other good news is that with population still growing, there will be more shoes sold, and I believe also with more prosperity, people would be looking for better shoes, better quality and new ideas in footwear. So I think we have a really interesting and great future for footwear industry.
Press: Bata already has over 4,000 stores all over the world, what’s the strategy for next step in global development?
Thomas G. Bata: The population in China is almost large as this, and I think there should have more than 4000 stores in China. So we will work diligently for new products, and new concepts in order to be able to have that strong presence here, and I think the world is going through a really interesting period of great prosperity. So I think we will see not only an increase the number of stores, but an increase of number of brands which we launch to cater to very specific and nitch markets.
Press: Bata is the only company has its own shoe museum, how it was initiated and what is interesting happening with it now?
Thomas G. Bata: It actually started because my parents were traveling together maybe 30, 40 years ago. As you know, Bata is one of the true first international companies, and wherever my mother went, she picked up shoes which reflected the types of shoes that people wore in that particular country. And about 15 years ago, she decided with the collection to really build a center of expertise for footwear, and that’s how the shoe museum developed. And actually the shoe museum has one of the biggest collections of Chinese footwear going back many hundreds of years. And it is also now become one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city of Toronto where it’s located.
