Bata Industries is shutting down its shoe factory in the eastern Ontario town of Batawa. More than 200 people will lose their jobs between now and next March.

The company says competition from imports leaves them no choice but to close the 60-year-old plant near Trenton, Ontario.

Bata will still have a distribution center in the Batawa area, employing about 40 people. Bata also plans to add up to 50 new stores in Canada over the next few years.

Bata was founded in the town of Zlin, Czechoslovakia, on August 24,1894. It was one of the world's first shoe "manufacturers": a team of stitchers and shoemakers creating footwear not just for their neighbours, but for faraway stores.

In the late 1930s, German Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and his army had begun invading central European countries including Czechoslovakia. The Batas wanted to get away from what was soon to become a full-fledged war.

In 1939 Thomas J. Bata arrived in Trenton, Ontario. He built houses in a nearby area that became known as Batawa, and built their factory the next year.

The company now has 250 retail outlets across the country . Canadian-made shoes make up less than 10 per cent of the market while just 25 years ago it was 50 per cent.

About 10 per cent of the employees in the Batawa factory will be offered jobs at a Bata plant in the United States. The other workers will lose their jobs.

Bata says it will set up a community investment program to minimize the social and economic impact of the closure on Batawa. In addition to severance payments, the Bata workers, who are mostly members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, will receive job counseling and retraining help.

1. Who is shutting down its shoe factory in the eastern Ontario town of Batawa?