Bridgestone lays out ‘execution strategy’ for mid-term plan

Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. laid out an 'execution plan' for its mid-term business plan to 2030, comprising four categories, which combine specific regional and product-based businesses and are ranked based on their contribution to group sales and profits.

The first, or ‘main’ category, for example includes the group's entire business in North America, while the European tire and solutions businesses  have been placed in category 3, Bridgestone announced in its its 2020-2021 sustainability report released 29 June.

In February, the Japanese group unveiled its mid-term business plan, which covers 2021-2023 and will be updated multiple times (2024-206, 2027-2029) to 2030. The plan will see Bridgestone focusing on three areas of ‘core’, ‘solutions’ and new businesses such as recycling and soft robotics.

In its latest sustainability report, Bridgestone said it had defined the four categories below to serve as the basis for executing the business plan. 

Category 1 – or main – encompasses the business in North America, mining, and the tire and solutions businesses in Japan, explained Bridgestone. The three businesses account for about half of the group’s sales. 

In this category, Bridgestone said it would will expand its solutions business, which includes fleet management and tires-as-a-service subscription model, and “proactively invest resources” to increase value. 

Category 2 - or next – Is the tire business in five markets of China passenger cars, Latin America, India passenger cars, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Here, the group said it would increase the category's contributing sales and profits to the global market to become the next ‘main’ category. 

Currently, these businesses account for about 20% of total sales but the group said it expected the market share to grow in the future. 

To do so, Bridgestone said it will "build a profit base and allocate resources in stages.” 

In particular, it said it would “reinforce the premium business strategy in China and establish a solutions business.” 

The solutions business, Bridgestone expects, will respond to the accelerating transformation in China toward CASE (connected, autonomous, shared and electric) mobility and MaaS (mobility-as-a-service).

Bridgestone said the move towards creating the ‘next main’ business is in anticipation of “challenging business environment” in some of the current main regions during the second phase of its mid-term plan, starting in 2024.

Category 3 – or strategic – contains the European tire and solutions business, and aviation tire and solutions business.

These businesses, Bridgestone said, form an important basis for the its global strategy, with Europe driving strategies in terms of sustainability, regulations, MaaS and OE manufacturers.

Category 4 – or developing – includes the China truck and bus tire business, India truck and bus tire business, and Russia and Africa tire businesses. 

Here, Bridgestone said it is “rebuilding these businesses and constructing a foundation for future profits.”

Describing the category as "markets with a promising future", Bridgestone said it would continue efforts to “break away from deficits by 2023" in those areas through reinforcing its "premium business strategy."