Batadorp is a model village or neighbourhood of the Dutch town of Best, just northwest of Eindhoven, where the Czech Bata Shoes company built a factory in 1934 on land that it bought from the municipality.[3][4]
Bata sought expansion abroad, partly to circumvent tariffs, and built factories and entire villages. Bata had operated shops in the Netherlands since 1922, and chose to locate in Best because land and labour were cheaply available. It also had good transport links, being at the junction of the Wilhelmina Canal with the Beatrix Canal and close to a railway. The factory it built there in 1933 was an exact copy of the headquarters in Zlín.[5]
At that time, Bata already had 28 shoe shops in the country, and this number grew to 150 in 1961. Many Bata shops had their own shoe repair and pedicure departments. The factory made ladies', men's, children's and sports shoes.
So that the employees could live near the factory, Bata built a town of 130 homes, separated from the centre of Best by the canal, along with schools, medical services and a hairdressers'. Bata built other such villages wherever it had factories.