Bridgestone's expansion in Tatabánya

Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone had its HUF 85 billion forint (EUR 274 million) capacity-expanding investment project officially inaugurated in Tatabánya, west of Budapest this Thursday. It is expected to create 500 new jobs.

During the course of the investment project a new, 97,200 square metre production hall was constructed behind the company’s existing, 47,200 square metre plant, as a result of which the facility’s production area has more than doubled. The number of people employed at the plant, the extension of which was inaugurated with the participation of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, is increasing from 361 to 1100, making the company one of the most significant employers in Komárom-Esztergom County, kormany.hu reports.

This will be the first Bridgestone plant in Europe and outside Japan to apply the company’s ground-breaking production technology based on artificial intelligence, which measures and analyses the quality of tyres at 480 points along the manufacturing process. Also unique is the plant’s fully automated warehouse for the transport and storage of tyres that are awaiting vulcanisation, and which has a maximum capacity of 70,000 tyres, as well as its final quality assessment and packaging systems.

Bridgestone Tatabánya Limited began production of premium quality tyres for cars and SUVs in 2008. In 2013, the company signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Hungarian Government, after which it decided on realising the 274 million euro expansion of its existing plant in Tatabánya.