Bridgestone is carrying out a large-scale restructuring
Bridgestone is one of the main players in the global tire industry, and its brand is well-known all over the world. However, recently the Japanese giant has been closing, selling, or downsizing its manufacturing facilities in various countries, from Spain and the USA to China and Thailand. This is not only due to intense competition in the market but also due to structural changes in the industry.
Over the past few years, as part of its restructuring, Bridgestone has begun large-scale layoffs at its tire plants in Spain, resulting in 546 people losing their jobs. Last year, the sales and profit of the plant in Biscay decreased by 15% and 27%, respectively, and deliveries to France fell by 73%. The company offered employees compensation of up to 30,000 euros in the event of voluntary dismissal, which 97% of the workers affected by the layoffs agreed to.
In the USA, Bridgestone's truck tire plant in LaVergne, Tennessee, was closed in July 2025, a month ahead of schedule, affecting 700 people and taking out of operation a production capacity of around 2 million tires per year. At the beginning of the year, 112 employees were laid off at the agricultural tire plant in Des Moines, Iowa, and around 740 people were laid off at the plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition, in January 2024, Bridgestone stopped production at its truck tire plant in Shenyang, China, which was subsequently bought by the local company Sailun for $37 million, and at the end of 2023, the tire plant in Thailand was closed.
In the first half of 2025, Bridgestone received revenue of $14.3 billion, which is 2.8% less than the previous year, while net profit fell by 42% to $776 million. The company's profitability is currently affected by negative factors such as competition from cheap tires from Asia, rising raw material costs, and an unstable situation in several countries, including Argentina.
Bridgestone states that "faced with numerous challenges, the company is accelerating its strategic transformation" and the main focus will be on expanding the high-margin business. To this end, Bridgestone is actively reducing low-margin capacity, and, for example, part of the tire production will be transferred from Spain to a plant in Poland with lower operating costs. Additionally, the sale of carbon black plants in Thailand and Mexico has been announced, and the company will continue to produce only carbon black for the production of high-tech premium tires on its own. New areas for development, such as the production of tires for electric and hybrid vehicles, are also being explored.
Bridgestone's strategy reflects the current situation in the tire industry, and now many large companies are reducing the production of low-margin products - for example, in the segment of truck tires, where Asian budget product manufacturers have very strong positions - and are betting on passenger tires with high added value, including for vehicles with new energy sources.
In its financial report, Bridgestone calls 2025 the "year of anti-crisis management" and adds that in 2026, a new chapter in the company's development will begin.