US facility · Tires
Bridgestone to invest $550 million to expand Tennessee truck and bus tire plant
- Company
- Bridgestone (Bridgestone Americas) (Tokyo)
- Project
- Warren County truck and bus radial tire plant, Morrison, Tennessee
- Value
- $550M
- Status
- Groundbreaking held August 16, 2023; Bridgestone then expected the expansion to be substantially complete by the end of 2026.
- Date
- 2022-08-25
Bridgestone Americas said it would invest $550 million in an 850,000-square-foot expansion of its truck and bus radial tire plant in Warren County, Tennessee. The project adds 380 jobs, taking the workforce from about 1,100 to more than 1,400. All tires made there will carry RFID tags, and the plant will add tire-mounted sensors and AI-based production controls.
Why it matters
Heavy-truck tires are a profitable core for Bridgestone, and adding US capacity with built-in sensors supports its push into data services for fleet operators.
The plant
The plant in Morrison opened in 1990 and is one of Bridgestone's most productive tire plants in the world. It shipped its one-millionth tire in 1993, when it made nearly 2,500 tires a day, and built its 70-millionth in October 2021.
What the expansion adds
The plant's floor space grows from 1.97 million to more than 2.8 million square feet. At the 2023 groundbreaking, Bridgestone said Warren County would be one of the first plants in the world able to make tires with its Enliten technology, designed for lower rolling resistance and wear. The 380 new jobs bring Bridgestone's US factory workforce to nearly 10,000.
Timeline
When it announced the plan in August 2022, Bridgestone expected construction to be mostly finished by May 2024. By the August 2023 groundbreaking, that target had moved to the end of 2026. Bridgestone Americas chief executive Paolo Ferrari said the investment was driven by growing demand for its products.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
