Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire and Bridgestone Firestone Canada Inc. on Thursday, July 31, announced price increases on the companies’ Bridgestone and Firestone brand tire lines, as well as all associate brand tires. The announced increases – up to 10 percent on passenger and light truck, truck and bus, motorcycle, agricultural and off-the-road tires – will affect the replacement, original equipment and export channels. The price increases are scheduled to begin Sept. 1.
“As a company, we are faced with a shortage of the basic, critical raw materials used to make our tires,” says Asahiko “Duke” Nishiyama, vice chairman and president of Bridgestone Americas Holding, parent company of Nashville, Tenn.-based BFNT and BFCA. “The result is a dramatic rise in prices for commodities such as butadiene, natural rubber and other materials.”
Nishiyama adds the continuing high prices for gasoline and diesel fuel affects every aspect of the company’s business – from manufacturing to distribution – and makes this action necessary. “Although we’ve worked continually to enhance efficiencies and increase productivity in all areas of our business, these efforts cannot fully mitigate the escalation of costs that we’re facing,” he says. “As a result, we have no choice but to implement this price increase.”
