Kubica Visits Bridgestone Poznan Tyre Plant

Employees at Bridgestone’s Poznan production plant in Poland enjoyed a day with BMW Sauber F1 driver Robert Kubica, who took time away from the track to pay them a visit. Poland’s star driver, who is currently nursing a leg injury after a horror crash at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, toured the factory and saw how tyres are made before choosing Poland’s winner of the Bridgestone “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing competition.

He turned a few heads on the way, chatting to staff on the production line and signing autographs for a lucky few of his enormous fan club in Poland. The Kubica visit was part of official celebrations for the completion of the final expansion phase at the Poznan plant, raising daily production capacity to 22,000 tyres. The increased output will help meet growing demand across Europe for Bridgestone’s high-performance passenger car tyres.

Other celebration activities include 8 open days at the plant during June, giving employee family members the opportunity to visit facilities and see a road safety demonstration.

Kubica was enthusiastic about his visit: “Meeting the plant staff was one of the day’s highlights” said Kubica. “It’s great to talk first hand with supporters in my home country. The Run Flat Tyre production line was especially impressive, knowing the safety benefits of the tyre.”

Earlier, Kubica had been welcomed by the Bridgestone Poznan plant management team and given a guided tour of the 18.7-hectare site.

The Poznan plant was opened in 2000 and manufactures new-generation Bridgestone passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres and is also Bridgestone’s first tyre production site outside of Japan to produce its line of Run Flat tyres

The Poznan Plant is Bridgestone’s sixth tyre plant in Europe and its first in central or eastern Europe. Of the five other European plants three are located in Spain and one each in France and Italy, in total the organisation runs 58 tyre plants across 26 nations globally.

Two other plants in Stargard (Poland) and Tatabanya (Hungary) are currently being built.