COVER N. 434 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: Rychnov nad Kněžnou 30.03.2024 

Posted on the 30th March; received on the 5th April 2024

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The Phantom flies Bata, it seems, but he does is in great style... a Lockheed Electra, proof that beauty is not a subject of gravity... provided you are not Amelia Earhart, who sadly lost her life in one of these, when trying to circumnavigate the globe.

Danke sehr, Alex. I really appreciate you going through the trouble of getting this cover for me.

Three siblings of the eight generation of a shoemaker family from the city of Zlin in what was then Czechoslovakia  would, in 1894, revolutionise the shoemaking industry, with the creation of a small 10 employee company that  in time would evolve into an immense industrial conglomerate, with interests in such diverse areas as  publishing or air and sea transport, but always solidly anchored in what was its initial area of activity: shoemaking.

Bata´s success (the initial 10 workers were already 600 by 1912)  can also be regarded as the result of a daring use of technologies and work organisation never before tested in shoemaking industry. An example of this can be seen in the fact that Bata, it seems, was first in introducing steam driven shoemaking machines, for instance.

On par with the attention to processes that allowed the company to grow, Bata's workforce also benefited from some measures of what is now called corporate social responsibility like housing, schools, access to health care, sports or leisure facilities, which in the corporate universe of the early 20th century was not that commonplace (and still isn’t, in many places….)

Due to the second world war and the geopolitical order that ensued from then on, the company went through various ups and downs, nationalisation, relocations, atc. But be it as it may, the company founded by Tomáš, Anna and Antonín Baťa still survives to this day, employing some 32,000 workers in 70 countries in the 5 continents,  its headquarters being located in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Amongst its many innovative business approaches, Bata is also to be credited with the invention of business aviation when, in 1932, a Lockheed Electra painted in  the colours of the company was put to service to ferry  company executives and highly skilled workers to factories of the group in need of technical assistance or to send replacement parts for production line machinery.

This aircraft, which itself has an interesting operational history, having been used by the RAF and RCAF during the second world war, still survives today, in flying conditions after undergoing full restoration in the US,  being based at, Točná Airport, Prague.

On 04SEP2019,  Česká pošta  issued the two tariff E (Europe up to 50g)  self-adhesive stamps Alex used on this nice cover. One of them, printed in colour, depicts Electra OK-CTB flying (Bata also owned OK-CTA, which crashed in 1937, on which Jan Bata initiated a round the world business promotion flight, which he concluded in OK-CTB) while the other, in black and white, depicts presumably the same aircraft, one of its engines being started. 

The cover also includes a stamp mark from  Massarykova Chata, a winter and mountain sports lodge in  Deštne village, Czech Republic.

The postmark hails from Rychnov nad Kněžnou, a city in North-eastern Bohemia.