From 1 March 2025, Bridgestone Corporation will introduce a new motorsports management structure in the form of a dedicated Motorsports Organization. Reporting to Bridgestone’s Global Chief Technology Officer, it will be responsible for developing motorsport tyres and for the technology that goes into this development. Bridgestone has appointed Hiroshi Imai as Head of the Motorsports Organization.
As reported last week, Laurent Dartoux is retiring as Group President of Bridgestone EMEA and additionally transitioning out of his roles as Vice President and Senior Officer of Bridgestone Corporation. Dartoux will serve in an advisory capacity until the end of March 2025, but from 1 February Mete Ekin will succeed him as Group President of Bridgestone EMEA.
A groundbreaking collaboration between Bridgestone and three other organisations aims to develop advanced recycling technologies for the secondary processing of recovered carbon black extracted from end-of-life tyres and other rubber polymer products. The aim is to convert this into a material with rubber reinforcement properties equivalent to those of virgin carbon black.
Bridgestone Corporation has announced the impending retirement of Laurent Dartoux. The Group President of the Bridgestone EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region business will retire on 1 February 2025. He will also cease being a Vice President and Senior Officer of Bridgestone Corporation as of this date, but will continue his relationship with the company in an advisory capacity.
In addition to taking on the positions of Chief Executive Officer within Bridgestone Corporation’s Bridgestone East regional business and G-MICA (Global Mining, Industrial, Construction, and Aviation Tire Solutions Business), from 1 January 2025 Nobuyuki Tamura will also become Chairman and Representative Board Member of Bridgestone Cycle Co., Ltd. Tamura succeeds Fumihiko Eitiko, who is retiring effective 31 December 2024.
In addition to increasing production capacity at its Wuxi passenger car tyre plant in China, Bridgestone Corporation has completed the second phase of its project to equip the Bridgestone (Wuxi) Tyre Co., Ltd. facility for generating solar power. Bridgestone has installed further rooftop panels which, since going operational in mid-November 2024, have increased the plant’s solar panel capacity to 13.029 megawatts (MW).
Bridgestone Corporation is investing to expand capacity at three of its passenger car tyre production facilities in Japan. With a total investment of approximately 27 billion yen (£139.1 million) in the Hikone, Tosu and Tochigi plants, the company will boost capacity for Enliten and larger rim diameter tyres. Bridgestone will lift overall production capacity by around 3,000 tyres a day, mainly in the 20-inch and larger size category where the company anticipates growing demand. It will start work on the project early in 2025 and plans to complete it by the end of 2028.
An investment of approximately US$85 million will increase production capacity for Bridgestone tyres in India and facilitate the development of products customised for the local market. Bridgestone Corporation’s Bridgestone India Private Ltd. (BSID) subsidiary will implement the investment at its Pune and Indore sites, with work commencing early next year.
The Moon is set to become a crowded address over the coming decade, with numerous national and private projects set to land craft, vehicles or people on the lunar surface. Bridgestone Corporation is playing a role through its collaboration with Astrobotic Technology, which centres on the joint development of an advanced lunar rover tyre. This new partnership builds upon the first- and second-generation concept lunar tyres that Bridgestone has already designed and tested.
When the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games concluded last month, the ceremony at Stade de France also served as a farewell of sorts to partner Bridgestone. Together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Bridgestone Corporation has agreed not to renew its current Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic Partnership agreement after its expiry at the end of this year. Instead, the company intends to recommit to “more endemic global motorsports platforms.”
At the end of this month, Paolo Ferrari will hand over his current roles within Bridgestone Corporation prior to his departure from the company at year’s end. The company has named Scott Damon his successor in several key positions.
For Bridgestone, 2025 will begin with changes within the company’s senior management. This minor personnel reshuffle includes the addition of new management functions as well as the naming of new leadership within existing roles.
As part of a project involving parties based in Japan and Indonesia, Bridgestone Corporation is working to develop technologies for preventing White Root Disease (WRD) in Para rubber trees. WRD kills rubber trees by infecting the roots with pathogenic fungi that causes tissue decay, and the disease’s onset is difficult to detect. By developing technologies to prevent fungal infection, the project aims to stabilise the yield of natural rubber and improve the productivity of plantations.
Bridgestone Corporation is extending its commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 through a series of innovation projects in collaboration with adaptive athletes. Since becoming a Worldwide Paralympic Partner in 2018, Bridgestone has focused on promoting inclusivity in sports and society, both on a global scale and within local communities. This effort includes partnerships with adaptive athletes and non-profit organisations to improve access to adaptive sports activities.
Announcing its financial results for the first half of 2024 on 9 August, Bridgestone Corporation reports mixed performance across key financial metrics. Little joy was to be had in Europe, where adjusted operating profit was half that of a year earlier.
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Stephen Goodchild / Tyre Industry Publications Ltd