Bridgestone Americas Inc. is shuttering its 53-year-old LaVergne, Tenn., truck and bus tire plant. The LaVergne plant has a rated capacity of around 2 million tires per year, and the tire maker intends to transfer this capacity to other Bridgestone facilities.
On January 23, Bridgestone announced the closure plans, which will take place on July 31, and will result in the loss of approximately 700 salaried and hourly positions. The company did not specify which plants might be subject to consolidation, but Bridgestone has just one truck and bus tire plant in the U.S., a 35-year-old plant in Warren County, Tennessee, that has a rated capacity of about 3.3 million tires per year.
"Decisions like this are not easy because of the impact it has on our teammates and their families, and, at the same time, we are optimizing our business footprint for the future," Scott Damon, CEO of Bridgestone West and group president for Bridgestone Americas, said in a statement. "We are confident that this decision will strengthen our core business, enabling us to operate more efficiently."
In August 2023, the tire maker broke ground on a $550 million expansion at its Warren County plant, increasing production capacity by 31% to 12,000 tires per day.
The project is expected to be completed in 2026 and the expansion is expected to create up to 380 jobs at the factory, which currently employs 1,020 people. At the same time, it is upgrading equipment and technology to ensure more efficient and sustainable manufacturing.
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