Bridgestone exiting from conveyor belt business

Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. is withdrawing from conveyor belt business by the end of 2024 as part of a move to restructure its diversified products business. 

The Japanese group plans to reduce its production and sales volume gradually to minimise the impact to the operations of customers and suppliers, said Bridgestone in a 1 Nov statement. 

Based within Bridgestone’s Tokyo headquarters, the conveyor operation has a manufacturing footprint in Yokohama, Japan and Rayong, Thailand and an R&D centre in Kanagawa. 

According to the group, all the sites manufacture and develop products other than conveyor belts and will therefore not be closed. 

The exit move is part of Bridgestone’s mid-term business plan (2021-2023), which aims to restructure the portfolio of its diversified products business to sharply focus on areas where it can leverage its core competencies. 

The conveyor belt business is part of the group’s chemical and industrial products business, representing about half of the sales of Bridgestone’s diversified products business. The diversified products business posted sales of Yen510 billion (€3.8 billion) last year and adjusted operating profit of Yen9.7 billion.

Bridgestone said it evaluated the business thoroughly, including potential to leverage core competencies, profitability towards the future and synergy within the group, before making the decision.

The group found that it would not be possible for the business “to keep providing both superior social and customer value while securing profitability.”

Bridgestone expects most of the 250 ‘highly skilled and experienced’ employees of the business to continue working with the group.