Bridgestone Americas on Monday, Nov. 15, announced plans to begin the process of relocating members of its senior management team and other specific functions of its Muscatine, Iowa-based Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions operations to locations in the Nashville, Tenn., area, including BSAM’s headquarters facility in Nashville.
BSAM says the decision is part of an overall effort to restructure the way it does business across its North American operations, with the goals to become a more profitable and customer-focused business; lower costs by eliminating duplication and inefficiencies; and harness talent and expertise in a way that best serves the business. The company says it is installing new management operating systems to improve efficiencies and business processes, and enhancing the ability to measure business and individual performance.
The BBTS functions that will remain in Muscatine are equipment manufacturing, emergency road service, human resources, retread manufacturing management, manufacturing finance, information technology developers and support, retread engineering, retread technical services, and retread research and development. About 220 BBTS employees will remain in Muscatine.
The following BBTS functions will be relocating to locations in the Nashville area, including the company’s headquarters facility: purchasing, marketing, finance, accounts payable, credit, business strategy and solutions, customer service, legal, safety and members of the company-owned operations senior management team.
In all, 32 BBTS teammates will be relocating to Nashville, and 55 BBTS teammates who will not be relocating to Nashville have been asked to assist with the transition, which is expected to conclude no later than June 30. Another 18 positions within BBTS were eliminated.
“Change is always difficult, but relocating our headquarters team and certain functions to the Nashville area is the right business decision, and will align our resources and people in a way that will enable us to better serve our customers,” says Kurt Danielson, BBTS president. “Our company has a rich heritage in Muscatine, and I’m pleased that BBTS will be keeping certain business functions here and that we will continue to be a part of this community.”
