Vypracovali: P. Halámek, P. Seifer, T. Makovec, P. Kmoníček

The first buildings of BOPO were built by Karl Budischowsky Company at the end of 19th century. The main gate and the neighbouring subjects were built there. Tomáš Baťa, a businessman from Zlin, bought these buildings in 1931. A new modern boiler-house designed by Ing. Vladimír Karfík, the chief architect, was built by a construction section of Baťa company at the same place in 1936.

A boiler, which was used for powering the generator producing the electricity for the needs of the factory, was placed in the new boiler-house.

Well-known semidetached Borovina houses designed by important Czech architects František Gahura, Vladimír Karfík and Miroslav Lorenc were built in the territory of the company at the same time. 

Baťa´s motto was painted on the top of the boiler-house. There were written black letters on the white basis “Thinking to the people – the hard work to the machinery”. 

After 1945 the weather damaged the motto and people could read a changed motto “Mice to the people – the hard work to the machinery”. The notice was finally painted over.

After 1965 the boiler-house was demolished and a new one with a high chimney was built there. There were placed two coal boilers. Black oil was burnt in another boiler-house, which heated blocks of flats of Bartuškova and Spojenců streets.

A large factory yard and one of two production buildingsdesigned by architect Karfik can be seen in this picture. The first one was used for the shoe making, the other one for the hosiery production.

The saddlery was also made in these buildings before the shoe making. For example - belts, horse saddles and harness for army. 

This photograph shows Borovina factory from the south-west. Only the factory buildings were there in 1898. There used to be brickworks there on the left (a parking space nowadays). The house for the masters is standing on the slope and the Chapel of Virgin Mary can be seen on the horizon.

New development of Borovina district started in 1935, when the production of hosiery was removed from Zlin. The appearance of the factory and the surroundings was changed. A large colony of little houses called “little boxes” was built there for the employees.

The front view. The side view.

With the growth of the factory production, the little producers began to lose its importance. Large factories appeared after the World War I. Baťa company expanded to many countries, during the “first republic”. There were over 150 Baťa´s shoe shops.22 million pairs of shoes and 33 million pairs of tights were made every year. 

 

After the Velvet Revolution the name of the factory was changed from communist The Factory of Gustav Kliment into Shoemaking Industry Svit, Inc. BOPO, branch office Třebíč. It happened on 1st January 1991. BOPO, the biggest shoemaker of Central Europe, employing 5,000 people stopped its production in 2000. It was caused by a competition from the East.