The Invar Manufacturing Plant was a long time employer in Batawa, Ontario. It was originally called Bata Engineering and was part of the Bata Shoe Factory owned by Thomas Bata.

Anticipating the Second World War, he, together with over 100 families from Czechoslovakia, moved to Canada in 1939 to develop the Bata Shoe Company of Canada, including a shoe factory and engineering plant, centred in the town that still bears his name, Batawa, Ontario.

Mr. Bata sold the manufacturing plant to Linamar out of Guelph. The plant was shutdown in June 2009 putting well over 100 workers and staff out of work.

The three buildings on the site known as Plant 1, Plant 2 and The Motel were purchased back by Sonja Bata (wife of the late Thomas Bata) in December of 2012 and are scheduled to be demolished in Spring 2013. Mrs. Bata plans to turn the still standing Shoe Plant into condominiums and wanted to ensure the Invar facility would be gone to better improve the view for condo owners.

The rumours have been swirling for years about the condo plans and it is not known when construction will begin on the site.

The photos posted here have been added to provide hopefully provide a permanent record of the once thriving and highly profitable Invar Manufacturing site which was a leading provider of nuclear reactor parts for Atomic Energy Canada among other projects over the years.

At the time of the sale, the building had been stripped of all machines, cranes, electrical boxes, most wiring, all transformers inside and outside the plants and most anything of value that could be removed. It was quite sad to see it all come to an end after so many years of providing good paying jobs in the area.

The reasons for the closure are not known however several rumours were floating around at the time.