Bridgestone UK Receives Award from European CEO

Bridgestone UK has received a special award from the global tyre manufacturer’s new European CEO Toru Tsuda for its outstanding business performance in the first half of 2008. Bridgestone, which is based in Warwick, continues to focus its efforts in working with independent tyre retailers and its well established Truck Point programme to strengthen its brand and market share aspirations.

With 20 Bridgestone sales companies in Europe, the CEO award is presented to the company that excels in all areas of business improvement, focusing specifically on increases in like-for-like sales, market share, category mix and profitability.

During the first half of the year, Bridgestone UK has increased like-for-like sales across all areas of the business, out-performing the market in all sectors. Sales in car tyres are up by 4.6 per cent across the market compared to the same period in 2007, but Bridgestone is forging ahead of the market with like for like sales up 15.6 per cent on last year.

The award was presented to Bridgestone UK managing director, John McNaught. He comments: “We continue to outperform our budgeted targets and indeed the UK market conditions during the first half of 2008 – this has been a team effort and is testament to the hard work and focus of every member of staff. We have worked with our retail partners to improve the category mix and this in turn has helped to boost profitability, with an increase in premium product sales.

“We are firmly focussed on increasing Bridgestone’s market presence in all areas. We do face a challenging economic landscape as we move into the second half of 2008, but we have a clear strategy, a strong team and the right products to continue to meet our goals.”