Bridgestone to sell car tyres retreaded at former plant site

As mentioned on Tyrepress.com yesterday, the future of tyre making at the site of Bridgestone’s recently-closed Béthune in France has been secured by a deal signed this month between major European vehicle maintenance and mobility firm Mobivia and French retreading specialist Black Star. With support from Bridgestone, the partners are gearing up to retread car, SUV and light commercial vehicle tyres in Béthune – products that Bridgestone intends to sell through selected retail outlets.

Mobivia subsidiary iWip and Black Star will develop an integrated tyre recycling ecosystem that occupies around 25 per cent of the Béthune site. It will collect used tyres from Mobivia’s auto centres, including Norauto, Midas and Carter Cash-branded outlets. Tyres deemed suitable during entry control inspection will be retreaded and then offered for resale through a number of channels. According to Mobivia, each retreaded tyre will save 9 kilogrammes of rubber and steel, a quantity that represents an 80 per cent saving in materials.

Four decades of retreading

Black Star has retreaded tyres since 1979 and currently employs approximately 30 people at its facility in Saint Pierre de Bœuf, Loire. The UTAC approved manufacturer offers summer, all-season and winter tyres for cars, SUV/4WDs and light commercial vehicles under the Black Star brand. All products comply with ECE R-108 and R-109. Mobivia began selling Black Star tyres in France via its Norauto centres last year and also offers them in Germany through its 2016-acquired ATU outlets.

Jean-Baptiste Pieret, chief executive of Black Star S.A.S., describes the Béthune project as an “integrated ecosystem” for the collection, sorting, recycling and retreading of tyres. The new plant, he adds, “aims to meet contemporary ecological challenges and in response to more sober, more reasoned consumer expectations.”

Industrial hub in Béthune

Originally a Firestone plant, the Béthune facility opened in 1961 and brought investment and employment to a region of northern France that had been hard hit by mining closures. The first Bridgestone tyre came out of the presses in 1991, and at its peak the company employed around 1,300 people in Béthune and the plant held the capacity to produce 25,000 tyres a day.

Efforts to remain competitive over the past decade proved unsuccessful and the employee headcount gradually declined. By the time Bridgestone announced its intention to close the Béthune site in September 2020, the decision directly affected just 863 employees. The tyre maker said the decision to end production there was a step to reduce production overcapacity and improve cost efficiency. Closing the plant was, it stated, “the only viable path to safeguard the competitiveness of Bridgestone’s operations in Europe.”

Bridgestone and French public investment bank BPI contacted more than 700 companies in targeted sectors with a view to “transferring the benefit of the know-how of employees and the strengths of the Béthune site and its territory,” and last December it reported interest from two tyre makers. The Béthune site changed hands for a “token sum” following the signing on 20 April of an agreement with SIG, the real estate subsidiary of French logistics solutions group Log’S. Bridgestone France is now working with SIG to develop an industrial hub at the premises.

Technical & financial support

Mobivia and Black Star announced their new project on 2 July, just two months after Bridgestone’s final production shift on 30 April. Daniel Giroud, commercial director (CSO) and member of the Bridgestone EMIA Executive Committee in charge of finding solutions for takeover and new activities in Béthune, welcomes the project as “good news” that adds substance to the site’s reindustrialisation plans.

Giroud adds that in addition to offering technical assistance, Bridgestone is financially supporting the project by providing assistance for the hiring of former Béthune employees as well as by selling essential plant equipment for a nominal amount. Bridgestone will also distribute the retreaded tyres through its Speedy, First Stop and Côté Route outlets. The CSO comments that the Béthune project fits with Bridgestone’s strategic objective to utilise 30 per cent sustainable materials by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050.