New Business Plan For Bridgestone Europe

Bridgestone Firestone Europe is to increase its capital by 400 million euros before the year-end, which will be undertaken by Bridgestone Corporation (Japan). Bridgestone Firestone Europe will use capital to rebuild its manufacturing resources and to reinforce its sales organisation and financial position.The production capacity for high performance tyres will be strengthened by strategic investment in passenger car tyre plants to facilitate quick changes to future products.

This will include the expansion of the Poznan plant, which will increase its capacity up to 23,000 tyres per day from its current capacity of 10,000 tyres. In addition, Bridgestone Firestone Europe will increase the truck and bus tyre output from its Bilbao plant from 3,500 to 4,600 units per day by the end of 2005.There will be a will streamlining of the balance sheet by writing down the value of fixed assets.

The write-downs will include the ageing equipment at the company’s five older tyre plants – excluding Poznan Plant, which only recently opened in 2000. Bridgestone Firestone Europe will record a loss of 300 million euros this year in connection with the revaluation of fixed assets but this charge will have no impact on cash flow.There will be further development of the Research and Development facility, in particular by increasing the development of high performance tyres.

This will include the development of a new proving ground at Rome (in addition to the existing one). The new Training and Communication Centre, which will be equipped for a wide variety of training programmes for European staff, dealers and customers will also be established here.Bridgestone Firestone Europe will change its name and the names of its subsidiary companies from the January 1st 2003.

Bridgestone/Firestone Europe S.A. will become Bridgestone Europe NV/SA; its subsidiaries’ company names will also change accordingly.

This name change aims to clearly identify the corporation as Bridgestone, along with Bridgestone Group’s worldwide activities and to distinguish it from the two major product brands, Bridgestone and Firestone.From the year 2003 and thereafter, Bridgestone Europe expects its status in the European market to become that of a major player of the leading group. The company aims to increase its market share through developing quality and quantity, particularly in the high performance sector.

Europe is seen as a leader in the global automotive industry and Bridgestone has aimed to become a top player in the European sector and to achieve customer recognition for this aim. Bridgestone Firestone Europe’s business strategy has been aggressively planned to meet this goal.The dynamics of the European market are moving rapidly towards higher performance vehicles, 4×4, and mini vans.

These sectors require higher performance tyres with lower profiles and higher rim diameters. This has been a key element in driving the changes at Bridgestone Europe. Bridgestone Europe will operate the European business and its subsidiaries including the six tyre plants, the Technical Centre and 17 tyre plants throughout Europe.