Bridgestone’s For Mercedes-Benz Limited Edition Coupe
Mercedes-Benz has chosen to fit Bridgestone’s “S-02 Pole Position” tyres on their CL 55 AMG F1 ‘limited edition’ coupe. 225/40 ZR 19’s are fitted on the front and 285/35 ZR 19’s on the rear.
Based in Japan, Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s largest tyre and rubber company.
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Warranty Changes At Bridgestone/Firestone USA
Product NewsIn a step at rebuilding consumer confidence in the Firestone brand Bridgestone/Firestone announced an extension of its limited warranty and 30-day money back guarantee in the United States. The range covered by the warranty will be extended from 53 product lines to 97 covering almost all the company’s products. The programme will replace tyres that become unusable “for any reason attributed to workmanship or factory defect” for the first three years of ownership, the first four years after manufacture, or until the tyre tread depth is worn down to 1/16th of an inch, whichever comes first. The 30 day money back guarantee remains as it says, if the customer is unhappy, he will get his money back if he returns the goods within 30 days of purchase.
Bridgestone Aims To Gain Market Shares In Brazil
Product NewsJapanese tyre manufacturer, Bridgestone is going for more market shares, especially in the truck tyre segment. This could effect the market leader Michelin, who has about 30% of the market. Bridgestone is also increasing the prices in Brazil for the replacement market by 8% and the OE market by approximately 10%. The only option to the price increase is to walk away from a losing money business.
Firestone Recall Hysteria Fuelled By Advocates
Product NewsFirestone has been forced, for the second time in the company’s history, to recall tyres in North America. 22 years ago, the recall of 14 million “f 500” tyres, almost ruined Firestone. The current situation refers to the recall of 6.5 million SUV tyres, the ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness line in the size P 235/75 R 15. About 2/3 of these tyres are earmarked for Ford’s OE demand for the Ford Explorer and the Ford Ranger. Bridgestone already announced that it would take a one-time $ 350 million charge and informed analysts that earnings estimates, $1 billion before the recall situation, had to be reduced by the amount of the taken charge. Whether this is the only financial impact that BFS will have to encounter is more than doubtful. In the US a horde of consumer advocates stand ready to sue BFS, all in the name of consumer advocacy. The likely cost of litigation is not included in the $ 350 million charge. The extent of the damage to BFS and its Firestone brand cannot be evaluated, it remains to be seen how the entire industry will be affected by this recall. Without any doubt, the Firestone brand has suffered a serious blow despite the fact that up until today it has not been demonstrated that the tyres were the cause of accidents investigated by NHTSA. BFS, so it seems, never really had a chance to manage the ensuing crisis in an optimal way. Although the crisis didn’t hit BFS completely out of the blue, BFS had to take into consideration the interests of its largest OE customer Ford on the one hand, and its own interest to protect the Bridgestone brand from any spill-over effects. One thing became abundantly clear: two kinds of tyre manufacturers currently exist. One the one hand, there are those who have already had to deal with a disastrous recall situation and on the other hand are those that will have to do just that at some uncertain time in the future.
Taken To The Web: The Ford/Firestone Recall
Product NewsFord Motor Co are using the Internet to publicise their part in the Bridgestone/Firestone recall. A banner advert used on some 200 sites leads surfers to a comprehensive Ford run website publicising the recall and the details of the tyres involved, advises replacement tyres and authorised replacement dealers. The publicity has the potential to reach 564 million readers.
New OTR Tyres From Bridgestone To Be Shown At Intermat
Product NewsBridgestone/Firestone is displaying its new generation of off-the-road tyres at Intermat 2000, one of a series of exhibitions for the construction and civil engineering industries, to be held in Paris from 16-21 May. Bridgestone claims a global OTR tyre market share in excess of 40% and in the past three years, has invested US$ 100 million in this product sector.
John Lampe to lead Bridgestone/Firestone USA
Product NewsBridgestone/Firestone USA has announced John Lampe as successor to outgoing Masatoshi Ono. John Lampe steps up from the number two position to lead the largest subsidiary of the Bridgestone Group. The announcement was made official at a company press conference in Nashville on 10th October.
New Technical Centre Building For Bridgestone in Tokyo
Product NewsBridgestone Corporation celebrated the completion of a major addition to its Tokyo Technical Centre on Monday, November 13th. The new building is part of a year-long series of events to mark Bridgestone’s 70th anniversary in March 2001. On hand for the completion ceremony were 56 Bridgestone executives, employees and guests, including Bridgestone President and Chief Executive Officer Yoichiro Kaizaki. The company has invested about 65 million Dollars in the project. The new Technical Centre Building stands eight stories tall and offers a floor space of around 34,000 square metres, bringing the total floor space at the Technical Centre to around 53,000 square metres.
And Now for Further Growth at Bridgestone/Firestone Germany!
Product NewsHigh growth rates in the winter tyre business brought Bridgestone/Firestone a strong 1999 result. Turnover figures were further improved over the previous year, according to the management, with prestige products “WT 12” and “FW 930”. To ensure this is not just a “one-off” success, a new high-performance low-profile tyre, the “Bridgestone RE 040”, already fitted as original equipment on the new BMW Z8, is to be introduced this spring. In the standard tyre segment the “Firestone FH 590” is also expected to convert the company’s 2000 performance into figures. A new departmental structure has been introduced at Bad Homburg to increase work efficiency and customer friendliness. Some divisions, like distribution, logistics and data processing, have been more closely interlinked. In the last few years the OE share has grown considerably so that it now amounts to one third of sales. The independent tyre trade continues to be the basis of the company’s business activities but is supplemented by other distribution channels like cooperatives, regional chains and car franchise firms, whose special requirements are, above all, seen as an opportunity to gain more know-how and to sense the needs of the market even earlier. This year again the whole public relations effort of Bridgestone/Firestone Germany will very consciously be centred round motorsport and Formula One in particular. Previous experience has shown that the manufacturer and its trade partners have benefited from the resulting image transfer to the standard tyre range.
Bridgestone Joins RubberNetwork.com
Product NewsBridgestone Corporation, the world’s largest rubber company, wants to join the electronic marketplace RubberNetwork.com as the seventh member of the group.
“No Defects Found In Recalled Tyres”
Product NewsBridgestone/Firestone’s chief executive in the USA, John Lampe, has said that the company has not found a defect in its recalled tyres, but he did say that there was “a safety issue with a small percentage.” Lampe’s definition of a defect is “something you can point to and say ‘there is the cause’ and we haven’t been able to find a cause or combination of causes.” He added that he believes the tyres only pose a safety problem when fitted to Ford Explorers.
Bridgestone/Firestone Price Increases
Product NewsSimilar to other tyre manufacturers, on 1st January 2000 Bridgestone/Firestone officially announced price increases of 3% for passenger car tyres and 2% for commercial tyres. The effects of this increase are now visible in the German replacement market.
Apology From Bridgestone CEO In Statement
Career TracksIn his statement to senators in the USA, Bridgestone/Firestone chairman and chief executive Mr. Masatoshi Ono apologised to the families “who have lost loved ones in these terrible rollover accidents”. This was interpreted by some as an attempt to put some responsibility on to the vehicle, rather than the tyres alone. Ford’s chief executive, Jacques Nasser, is reported to have said later that the issue is to do with tyres and not vehicles.
US Survey Of SUV Tyres Puts Bridgestone Top
Product NewsFor a change, some good news for Bridgestone regarding SUV tyres. The Bridgestone Dueler AT 693 came out top in a survey of SUV tyres in US magazine Consumer Reports. The tests for the all-terrain tyres included wet and dry braking, emergency handling, noise, rolling resistance, traction in snow and braking on ice. The Bridgestone tyre was followed by (in order) Kelly Safari AWR, Dunlop Radial Rover, Cooper Discoverer A/T, Firestone Wilderness AT II and Goodyear Wrangler AT/S. In a separate table of all-season SUV tyres, the BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A came top.
Tyre Manufacturers In FT Top 500
Company News, News, UK NewsThe Financial Times has published its annual list of the top 500 global companies, ranked by market capitalisation. The only tyre company in the world list is Bridgestone, at position number 300. In the list of the top 500 European companies, there are three; Michelin (304), Pirelli (311) and Continental (482).
