According to foreign media reports, Bridgestone recently announced that it would expand the Costa Rican tire factory.The company plans to invest about 190 million dollars to complete the modernization of the factory within five years.
By 2026, the capacity here will increase by 36% and 160 new jobs will be created.Tire World Network noted that Bridgestone's investment enthusiasm this year is very high.Since the second half of the year, they have expanded 4 tire factories, with a total investment of about 6.1 billion yuan.This is in sharp contrast to the attitude of successively closing factories and transferring business in 2021.
It is understood that these operations can not be separated from the efforts of the Bridgestone leader, Xiuyi Shiqiao.Back in 2019, Bridgestone had just given up its position as the world's top tire seller. What's more, their performance has stagnated for five consecutive years and is difficult to grow.
In March 2020, Shiqiao Xiuyi took over the company, and immediately started a high-level exchange.
This year, Bridgestone suffered losses for the first time in 69 years due to the epidemic.Under domestic and foreign troubles, Shiqiao Xiuyi put forward the slogan of "the third entrepreneurship", leading the enterprise to start transformation. According to the data, Bridgestone tire was formerly a sock factory.
In 1931, its founder, Masayiro Shiqiao, joined the tire industry and was known as the "second venture".
Bridgestone's "third venture" is to adapt to industrial change and find new profit points.In the opinion of Shiqiao Xiuyi, the company should first abandon the unprofitable factories and businesses.
So at the beginning of the plan, Bridgestone pushed ahead with the public discussion and successively closed tire factories in South Africa and France.Their next goal is to increase the sales share of high value-added products.The production of large-sized tires, electric vehicle tires and sensor tires has become a top priority.