Bridgestone aims to save 400 million euros through cost-cutting measures
Japanese company wants to rationalize “entire value chain”, including by reducing working hours and optimizing purchasing
Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. aims to reduce its costs by 65 billion yen (400 million euros) by the end of 2024 through various cost-cutting measures across all its global operations.
Among other things, the group wants to reduce fixed costs in sales, production and warehousing “in accordance with the number of units sold,” Bridgestone announced on August 9.
In particular, Bridgestone plans to “optimize” its production capacities, especially for truck and bus tires in North America and Europe, the company added in its half-year financial statements.
The process involves reducing the number of operating days and suspending certain processes to improve the profitability of the TBR business.
As part of the initiative, Bridgestone also aims to “review, reduce and optimize” production-related investments from the second half of 2024 to 2025.
Other planned measures include cost reductions in global purchasing, a global logistics transformation, the use of BCMA* and a shift to “green and smart,” Bridgestone added.
To this end, Bridgestone announced that it intends to “reduce assets” by reducing inventories, thereby contributing a total of 51 billion yen worldwide for the full year.
The Japanese company will then “establish a lean system structure for the year 2025,” it said.
Bridgestone expects a cost reduction of 65 billion yen across the entire value chain for the full year. In the first half of the year, 34 billion yen was already achieved.
*BCMA (Bridgestone Commonality Modularity Architecture) is used to modularize complex tire components into three sections: carcass, belt and tread.