Bridgestone Americas has announced plans to restart its North American commercial tyre plants as well as its North American Firestone Industrial Products and Firestone Building Products manufacturing facilities on 13 April. The company’s Bandag retread rubber manufacturing plants in North America resumed operations the week of 29 March in order to meet demand by essential service providers.
We can expect a flurry of business card printing and updates to LinkedIn profiles at Bridgestone in the near future following the announcement of several key appointments in the Americas and Asia Pacific regions. These latest executive management changes follow those announced in December 2019.
Bridgestone Corporation has announced several executive leadership changes in its Americas and Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA) regions, following the appointment of Shuichi Ishibashi as new CEO. The company said the changes reflect its “commitment to thoughtful succession planning” focusing on its global growth agenda.
Bridgestone Americas is expanding warehouses at two of its passenger car and light truck tyre manufacturing facilities in the USA. It will invest a total of US$72 million at its Aiken County, South Carolina and Wilson, North Carolina sites; the aim is to “enhance operational excellence” and “further increase the company’s ability to serve North American tyre dealers and customers.” This investment builds upon current and ongoing expansions of both plants.
Bridgestone Americas has named TJ Higgins its group president, Americas Tire Business. Higgins starts in this newly-created role on 16 September and takes responsibility for sales of all tyre-led businesses across the Americas region, including the company’s large integrated consumer and commercial tyre businesses.
Bridgestone Americas says it is honoured to be one of FCA’s Supplier of the Year awardees in the North America region. The tyre maker was one of 19 supplier partners acknowledged at the 2019 annual Supplier Conference and Award Ceremony in Detroit.
Production capacity for truck and bus radials at Bridgestone’s Warren County factory in Tennessee, USA will increase as part of a three-year, US$40 million investment to “meet market demand and address emerging customer needs.” Bridgestone Americas says it will break ground on expansion work at the 28-year old plant before the end of this year.
Bridgestone Americas’ Aiken, South Carolina, passenger and light truck tyre and its Aiken OTR tyre plants have been accepted into the South Carolina Environmental Excellence Program (SCEEP) for their recycling, conservation and community support. SCEEP, a programme highlighting outstanding workplace environmental improvement, is implemented through the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. SCEEP was designed to recognize and reward South Carolina facilities that have demonstrated superior environmental performance through pollution prevention, energy and resource conservation, and the use of an environmental management system.
A new role for Joseph Saoud at Bridgestone Americas. The former president, truck bus radial and retread tyres, US and Canada, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, has been named president, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America. In this role, Saoud will oversee the Bridgestone tyre business in Latin America, which includes subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. He will report directly to Gordon Knapp, president and chief executive officer of Bridgestone Americas.
Caterpillar has awarded the Bridgestone Americas agricultural tyre plant in Des Moines, USA the highest level in the Caterpillar Supplier Quality Excellence Process (SQEP) certification – Platinum Level for a second consecutive year. These back-to-back platinum awards follow three years of Gold Level SQEP certifications. Bridgestone Americas says receiving the latest Platinum Level certification “represents a significant milestone” for Bridgestone and the Firestone agricultural tyre team.
Bridgestone Americas has announced a US$12 million investment that will expand production to include popular off-the-road (OTR) tyre sizes at its Bloomington, Illinois facility. The plant will produce multiple sizes and patterns in 29-, 33- and 35-inch OTR tyres, which until now have only been produced by Bridgestone in Japan.
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. has named Andy Sobotta its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). He begins in this capacity on 21 May and will be based in the company’s headquarters town of Nashville. He will report to Stefano Mezzabotta, chief information officer, Bridgestone Americas, with dotted-line reporting to Chris Karbowiak, chief administrative officer, chief risk officer and executive vice-president, Bridgestone Americas.
The wholesale tyre distribution networks owned by Goodyear and Bridgestone in the USA are combining to form an operation the two protagonists claim will be “one of the largest tyre distribution joint ventures in the United States.” This 50-50 joint venture, announced yesterday, echoes the arrangement that Michelin and Sumitomo Corporation entered into at the start of the year.
At the end of January Bridgestone Americas, Inc. (Bridgestone) announced that it is offering PressureStat, a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) launched for off-the-road (OTR) tyres in the construction, quarry, underground hard rock and port industries.
At a ceremony yesterday, Bridgestone Americas, Inc. celebrated the official opening of its new headquarters building, Bridgestone Tower. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, the 514,000-square foot (47,750 square metre), 30-storey tower is now home to more than 1,700 Bridgestone employees.