Bridgestone Breaks Ground on Mexican BIRD Plant

(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone executives along with members of the Mexican government gathered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, to celebrate breaking ground for the company’s new BIRD based tyre plant. Representatives from Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. (BAH), Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) and Bridgestone/Firestone Mexico, SA. de CV (BFMX) were all present.

The new plant will be operated by Bridgestone Neumaticos de Monterrey, SA. de CV, a sister company to BFMX. The new Monterrey facility will produce high performance, ultra-high performance and large-diameter passenger and light truck tyres, primarily for the North American market, BAH reported. Investment in the new plant is expected to total $220 million. The new plant will have a production capacity of about 8,000 tyres per day and approximately 200 employees, BAH said.

BAH also noted that the manufacturing facility will be the first outside of Japan to use Bridgestone Corp.’s BIRD tyre production system. BIRD is an acronym for “Bridgestone Innovative and Rational Development” and is a production system that completely automates all stages of tyre manufacture, from initial processing to final inspection, according to BAH. Once completed, the new plant will be Bridgestone’s 49th manufacturing facility and its third plant in Mexico. The other two plants are located in Mexico City and Cuernavaca.