Firestone Industrial establishes European HQ in Netherlands

ERJ staff report (DS)

Indianapolis, Indiana -- Firestone Industrial Products Europe BV has created a new European business and technical centre in Arnhem, The Netherlands. It is due to be operational from the second quarter of 2009.

The company, which specialises in air springs, has set up the centre to develop its business in Europe. The new facility is home to the engineering, design and testing team for Europe, as well as Firestone's European business operations, including marketing, sales, distribution and business support functions. Firestone said the new offices are located close to Firestone's manufacturing plant.

Firestone Europe built a manufacturing plant in Wolstyn, Poland in 2006, with warehousing and distribution in Rotterdam. The company has manufacturing operations at three sites in North America in addition to the Polish unit.

Leading the Arnhem facility is Dan Leonard, managing director of Firestone Industrial Products Europe BV. Leonard, who transferred to Arnhem from the US, has more than 30 years of experience with Firestone in the air springs industry.

Additional key staff members include: Leo Peeters, engineering manager; Julian Blackwell, sales director; Tom Falk, distributor sales manager; Mike Foster, original equipment sales manager; Jeff Harper, controller; Mijke Overmaat, human resources manager; Steffan ter Horst, European purchasing; and Thorvald Löbel, senior quality engineer Europe.

In a statement, Firestone said, "The full-service technical centre will be capable of conducting characteristics lab testing of air springs to determine spring rate, load-carrying capacity, and fatigue testing to determine the longevity of air springs. Additionally, the engineering department is equipped with state-of-the-art design technology for producing innovative products for the European automotive market."

The technical centre is located at Delta 160, 6825 MV in Arnhem