* recorded in the personal card:
At the age of fourteen, he joined the Zlín factory as a trainee in punching leather, learned to understand the material and be economical with it, he then worked his way up to an important position in the company. At the beginning of 1916, his boss reassigned him to a new company tannery, and this field became Hynek Bata lifelong profession. He was a foreman in a tannery, and from there Bata also sent him to America, where in 1924 he got to know the industrial operations there. After his return, he ran tanneries in Zlín and then especially in Otrokovice, where from 1931 the entire industry was concentrated in new, extensive tanneries. He gained great merit during the construction of “Bahňák-Bata” in Otrokovice. In the years 1939-1945 he belonged to the top management of the Bata Group in Zlín. After the communist coup of 1948, he fled abroad and joined the “Bata people” around Tomas Bata junior. He set up a new tannery in France and in other countries and worked for the company until his retirement in 1965. He died on April 1, 1968.
Tomas Bata through the eyes of Hynek Bata: He told me to come on Saturday evening to help him prepare his shoe lasts for the next week. I replied that I would like to go to the theatre in the evening. "Choose what you want," he told me. "If you want to be a director one day, you can go to the theatre when you prepare your shoe lasts. If you prefer theatre to shoe lasts, you will remain a day labourer."
Hynek Baťa (SOkA Zlín, o. č. 2595, p. č. 2)
