Bridgestone Tyre Te Awamutu
Phone: +64 7871 5676
Tyres Brands: Bridgestone & Firestone
Address: 473 Sloane Street, Te Awamutu, Waipa
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 08:00 – 17:00, Saturday: 08:00–13:00, Sunday: Close.
Bridgestone is a Japanese tyre manufacture company, founded 1931 in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. In 1988, acquired The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and is one of the biggest tyre companies in the world, with 181 production facilities in 24 countries.
Today the Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s leading tyre manufacturer, supplying quality tyres for cars, trucks, buses, construction and mining vehicles, industrial machinery, agricultural machinery, aircraft, motorcycles and others.
In New Zealand, Bridgestone is the only tyre manufacturer. The Papanui plant provides a significant community contribution as one of the biggest employers in the Christchurch area. The factory opened in 1947 and produced the first tyre to be made in New Zealand.
Bridgestone Dueler, Potenza, Ecopia, Turanza and Blizzak are synonymous of high quality, trust and comfort.
▷ Bridgestone Dueler: it is a tyre designed for the four seasons of the year and also helps to consume little fuel.
▷ Bridgestone Potenza: these tyres are designed for sports cars because they provide excellent grip, both on dry and wet surfaces, providing excellent response and handling.
▷ Bridgestone Ecopia: is the most environmentally friendly tyre produced by Bridgestone, because it is built with materials that generate less environmental impact. Also is designed for traction and comfort for all four seasons.
▷ Bridgestone Turanza: these tires help absorb noise delivering a smooth and reliable ride. Like its brother Potenza, it is also excellent on dry and wet floors.
▷ Bridgestone Blizzark: this model is designed for snow and ice, delivering the best performance in the winter season.
Bridgestone History
Bridgestone is a Japanese tyre manufacture company, founded 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. In 1988, acquired The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and today is one of the biggest tyre companies in the world, with 181 production facilities in 24 countries.
Because of Shohiro and the way that Bridgestone was built, they just focused on trying to be the most truthful to themselves and making the best company they could based on the Japanese values that their old companies have had. And it wasn´t until the forties that they really started to see a whole lot of growth.
Things didn’t really get much easier for Bridgestone in the forties because of the Second World War. Between losing their Tokyo headquarters and international assets, Bridgestone didn’t seem like its going to survive for very long.
But, the going back that Bridgestone was good at, Shojiro just decide that were gonna hunker down and go back to what made Bridgestone the best, which was making tyres and revolutionizing what they knew in the Japanese market that other companies couldn’t do. They introduced the rayon cord tire in 1951 to push ahead the tire industry into something new, which ended up being an extremely successful tire in the early fifties.
By 1965 in Singapore the first tire factory was installed outside of Japan, the second was in 1969 in Thailand. The 1960s were very successful and growing for Bridgestone, settling in the United States in 1967.
In 1978 Bridgestone began to offer its first high performance radial tyre, the model was called Potenza. The oil crisis and economic stagnation at that time in Japan were the great drivers of working on the new technology of the Potenza radial model.
Its Super Filler Radial was placed on the market in 1978, and in 1979 the company introduced the high-performance POTENZA radial tire. The Potenza tyre model it was pretty monumental considering that there weren´t a lot of options when it come to ultra-high performance back in the late seventies.
Bridgestone grew overseas and inevitable began to acquire other tire businesses in the world. Now you have to remember in the tire market, there is a ton of competition, especially when you´re considering companies like Goodyear and Sumitomo.
And, in 1988, Firestone was officially acquired by Bridgestone. They essentially got a hold of pretty much everything, because that´s was Bridgestone needed to essentially become in the one of the biggest tyre manufacturer company in the world.
They didn’t close any plants, they didn´t do anything to really change the game, they just needed more and Firestone give them the opportunity to grow. Bridgestone the entered in the motor sport era and became involved in pretty much everything from Formula One to Indianapolis 500.
Bridgestone ultimately got involved in everything from passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, specially tyres, and commercial tires, because well, they could. And they have plants all over the world.