Bridgestone Merges Number of Domestic Sales Units

Bridgestone is to “reorganise its domestic tyre sales units” on 1 January 2009, the company has revealed in a press release, cutting the number of Japanese sales districts from 25 to 19. The manufacturer states that the measures are being introduced “to improve sales efficiency at a time of poor vehicle sales”.

The leading Japanese tyre maker plans to integrate sales subsidiaries in the five northern prefectures of Aomori, Miyagi, Fukushima, Akita and Yamagata into one, which will be set up in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. Units currently in Tokyo and nearby Yamanashi Prefecture will be unified, and a unit in Shimane prefecture, western Japan, will be merged with one in neighbouring Hiroshima prefecture. Finally two retreading subsidiaries will be merged into one.