Bridgestone Americas Strengthens Distribution Network

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO) has marked the official opening of its new tyre distribution centre in Jacksonville, Florida. The centre’s opening, says BATO, marks the latest step in its North America distribution centre modernisation programme.

With a capacity of more than a million tyres, ranging from small passenger and industrial tyres to those for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, the Jacksonville centre will supply tyres and automotive parts to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. In addition, the distribution centre will supply the entire United States with tyres produced in Latin America, and the eastern half of the United States with tyres from Japan and the wider Asia region.

“The strategic location of the Jacksonville distribution centre not only provides a tactical port of entry for our products, it also gives us the ability to provide overnight delivery service to virtually all of the customers serviced from this centre,” said Steve Shelton, vice president, Logistics Supply Chain Management, BATO. “The people, community and location of Jacksonville were critical factors in our decision to develop a centre there back in early 2007. We’re very excited to call Jacksonville home.”

BATO operates seven distribution centres across North America. The Jacksonville facility, at more than one million square feet (93,000 square metres),is the largest of the company’s centres. It boasts more than 200 dock doors and is capable of handling more than 50 trailer loads of product in and out of the facility daily. The Jackson centre has a full-time workforce of approximately 80 employees.