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’s successful acquisition of TomTom Telematics follows earlier reports that both Michelin and Bridgestone were vying to buy the Telematics business unit from Netherlands-based company TomTom. In addition, according to Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad, Michelin was one of four in the running. For its part, Michelin was allegedly aiming to add the business into its Michelin Solutions portfolio. Clearly, in order to maintain its original plans and to compete with Bridgestone, Michelin will now have to find an alternative way of moving forward.
At last week’s HR Excellence Awards 2018 in Singapore, Bridgestone Asia Pacific walked away with an ‘Excellence in HR Change Management’ award. Receiving bronze in this category, Bridgestone was the only tyre maker honoured at the ceremony.
Offered as part of its fleet service programme in Europe since 2013, Bridgestone is now beginning the rollout of its Tirematics solution in the Asia Pacific region. The solution is initially being deployed in Singapore and Thailand.
Bridgestone Corporation shares that Yves Kerstens, chief technology officer of its Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. subsidiary, will leave the company on 31 December 2017. Yoshikazu Shida, currently director of Bridgestone Corporation’s Public Relations and Environmental External Relations division, will succeed him in this position in early January.
As of 1 January 2018, Thomas Higgins will take over as chairman of Bridgestone Europe NV/SA, succeeding Eduardo Minardi in this position. Higgins will also become a senior officer of Bridgestone Corporation and will retain his role as president of Bridgestone Americas’ US & Canada Consumer Tire Sales Division.
Last week, Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. officially opened its new Asia Pacific Technical Center (APTC) facility in Thailand’s Pathum Thani Province. The APTC team relocated to this new, larger facility in late March from a site north of Bangkok, where it had operated since its inauguration in 2013. Bridgestone says the new facility will help the APTC to “strengthen its functions and better develop products suited to the region’s customers’ needs and requirements.”
More than 10 million original equipment and replacement market Ecopia tyres have been sold in the Asia Pacific region since the brand was first launched there in 2009, reports Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. As of 2014, Ecopia tyres accounted for more than 20 per cent of Bridgestone’s replacement market sales in Asia Pacific.
Although still one of Asia’s poorest nations, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, or Burma, has began to forge links with its neighbours and the rest of the world since 2011. Last October, the country’s government relaxed restrictions on new vehicle imports, opening the door to overseas manufacturers. Tyre makers are establishing a presence in Myanmar, too: On 8 July, Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. announced the official opening of its Myanmar branch office in former capital Yangon. The office’s main function will be to gather information on the truck, bus, car manufacturing industries and tyre markets, as well as conduct related activities on behalf of the regional head office.
