Based in Japan, Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s largest tyre and rubber company.
Bridgestone has signed a new commercial fleet partnership with Stobart Energy, the UK’s number one supplier of biomass fuel. The fleet will run exclusively on the Bridgestone Duravis R002. The tyre is designed to lower cost per kilometre through both wear performance and fuel efficiency. Designed for the versatility segment, the Duravis R002 is available to all types of on-road fleet operation and deliver outstanding wet grip.
There’s a new flagship Bridgestone tyre in the city bus segment, and it’s called the U-AP 002. Bridgestone says it designed this successor to the U-AP 001 to lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in congested urban areas through decreased rolling resistance. What’s more, by increasing tyre life through enhanced durability, the result is a tyre enabling a reduced total cost of ownership.
Bridgestone Corporation reports that its Bridgestone Americas, Inc. subsidiary has completed the sale of Firestone Building Products to Holcim Participations (US) Inc, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim Ltd. (LafargeHolcim). According to the Japanese company, the US$3.4 billion transaction will “advance Bridgestone’s efforts to deliver value to customers and society as a global leader providing tyres and advanced mobility solutions.”
Eni’s chemical company Versalis and Bridgestone EMIA are jointly developing raw materials for high performance tyres following an agreement between the firms to collaborate. Versalis, a leader in the production and marketing of elastomers, had previously formed a strategic partnership in North America. Developing this relationship in the EMIA region, the two companies will research, production and supply of synthetic rubber with advanced properties.
Commercial vehicle tyre suppliers are increasingly required to be multifaceted in their approach. Following its acquisition of TomTom Telematics in 2019 (now known as Webfleet Solutions), Bridgestone’s transition from tyre producer to mobility solutions provider with increasingly integrated approaches to fleet services moved up several gears. Demand for fleet-based mobility grows year-on-year, the tyre manufacturer says, with fleet managers demanding reliable and innovative services to maximise their effectiveness and efficiency. Webfleet Solutions has allowed Bridgestone to support business process streamlining with seamless end-to-end systems. These include transport management systems, on-board cameras, and route optimisation.
All electricity consumed in Bridgestone’s European locations now comes from renewable sources. The tyre maker reports that all its European tyre plants, the European R&D Centre and Proving Ground in Rome, Italy, its pre-cured retreading materials plant in Lanklaar, Belgium, textile plant in Usansolo, Spain, and Bridgestone EMIA headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, are now powered by electricity from 100 per cent renewable sources.
Bridgestone reports that it is gaining extra traction in the SUV market, thanks to its range of top performing products, which have “never been more integral to its premium portfolio”. The company’s Dueler range continues to offer broad coverage in the SUV tyre segment and has more recently been supplemented with what the Turanza T005, Weather Control A005 and now the ultra-performance Potenza Sport offer.
The 2022 Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle, which goes on sale in the UK this month, arrives wearing Bridgestone Battlax Hypersport S22 tyres as original equipment. The latest Hayabusa is fitted with the S22 in size 120/70 ZR17 at the front and 190/50 ZR17 at the rear.
Bridgestone is tickled pink that its new flagship performance tyre, Potenza Sport, has been named winner of Auto Bild sportscars’ 2021 summer tyre test. Scoring ahead of eight other brands of tyre, the Bridgestone Potenza Sport, tested on a Ford Mustang 5.0 in the size 265/35 ZR 20, gained the overall best score in the wet and top ratings on dry roads and was classed as ‘exemplary’ by the German magazine.
A set of UHP tyres can cost more than £1,000 or less than half that, but you get what you pay for. This is what Auto Bild Sportscars found in its 2021 summer tyre test – the pricier tyres finished towards the top of the results table, while the two cheapest tyre brands were also the worst performers.
Bridgestone Americas is providing a one-time, US$100 payment to all of its more than 33,000 employees in the USA who choose to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The company is also exploring options to deploy a comparable programme to employees in Canada and Latin America as the vaccine becomes more widely available. Bridgestone is among the first major employers in its industry to initiate a financial payment to employees who decide to be vaccinated.
Following last month’s preview of the 2021 report, Brand Finance has released its full Tyres 10 ranking. According to the 2021 table, the tyre sector has taken a hit over the last year, with all 10 brands losing brand value. Brand Finance unsurprisingly puts this decline down to the pandemic-related behavioural changes: “Owing to the lack of travel due to lockdowns, car sales are declining, which means tyre brands are selling less units, resulting in a drop in market equity across the industry. Furthermore, since the economy has been riskier in general over the past year, investor risk has increased, triggering a rise in the cost of capital.”
Bridgestone Corporation has become a member of The Valuable 500, a global movement committed to making disability inclusion a greater part of the business leadership agenda. Through this partnership, Bridgestone says it and other top companies around the world are “committing to help build and promote a society that realises the value of the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities.”
CDP, a global non-profit that runs the world’s leading environmental disclosure platform, has named Bridgestone Corporation to its Supplier Engagement Leaderboard for a second year in a row. It is also the fourth time in total that it has included Bridgestone on the Leaderboard with the highest rating of ‘A’ in Supplier Engagement Rating.
Bridgestone Corporation has released a new commemorative logo and webpage to mark the 90th anniversary of its founding. The company notes that as well as highlighting the anniversary milestone, the logo looks to the future that lies beyond. “It also expresses a commitment to pursuing innovation and swift progress while treasuring its connections with stakeholders.”
Bridgestone
Bridgestone