Mr József Vápár, Director General of the Ministry of economy and transport; Mr Miklós Horváth, Mayor of Kornye; Mr János Bencsik, Mayor of Tatabanya

Bridgestone Europe announced yesterday that work has started on a new state-of-the-art tyre plant in Tatabanya, Hungary, for the production of high-performance radial tyres for passenger cars and light trucks. Construction of the about €190 million complex is being financed and managed by Bridgestone Hungary Manufacturing Ltd – a newly-formed subsidiary of Bridgestone Europe NV/SA - with completion due at the end of 2007. Production is scheduled to reach more than 8,000 tyres a day by 2009.

The foundation stone was laid by Mr Takashi Urano, President, CEO and Chairman of Bridgestone Europe, Mr József Vápár, Director General of the Ministry of economy and transport; Mr Miklós Horváth, Mayor of Kornye and Mr János Bencsik, Mayor of Tatabanya on 8^th of June.  “This plant is vital for our European objective of steady, profitable growth” said Mr Urano at the ceremony. “It is a showcase of advanced technology and a key asset in our strategy of focusing on high-value-added products in the extremely competitive European tyre market”.

For the first time in Europe, Bridgestone will deploy its new fully-automated production system that has proved so effective in Japan. Called BIRD (Bridgestone Innovative & Rational Development), the new system is in the opinion of the company, the most automated tyre production system in the world, automating the entire manufacturing sequence from processing raw materials through to inspecting finished tyres.

In addition to productivity more than twice as high as existing company production systems, BIRD gives Bridgestone other major advantages:

• it is more compact than current manufacturing systems;
• evolving tyre designs, structures and materials can be accommodated;
• it brings unprecedented quality gains, especially in tyre uniformity and balance; 
• the environmental impact of manufacturing operations is minimised;
• it handles small production lots efficiently, enabling it to respond to demand for tyres of any specification and in any volumes. The new Hungarian plant will serve the growing European demand for high-performance, large rim-diameter passenger car tyres, as well as increase the group’s overall supply capacity. It will be the second Bridgestone plant in central Europe, after Poznan in Poland, and the group’s seventh in Europe.

Sales and distribution of Bridgestone tyres in Hungary are undertaken by Bridgestone Hungary Ltd., a key central-European subsidiary of Bridgestone Europe NV/SA. Established in 1994, Bridgestone Hungary Ltd. supplies hundreds of commercial partners nationwide with the full range of Bridgestone premium tyres for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, trucks and buses, motorcycles, agricultural vehicles and off-road vehicles.

Location                                         Near Tatabanya, Hungary

Start of production                         January 2008

Completion                                     End 2007

Site                                                 About 66 hectares

Production system                         Using Fully-automated System (BIRD)

Products                                        Radial tyres for passenger cars and light trucks

Total investment                            About 190 million euros

Production capacity                       About 8,000 tyres/day in the first half of 2009

Ownership                                     Bridgestone Europe NV/SA 100%

Information: Eirik Lien +47 23 14 36 00