Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO) announced its plant in Warren County, Tenn., will produce 9,000 truck and bus tires daily beginning in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The company says an additional 900 tires will be produced per day in the fourth quarter. A $36.6 million expansion project begun in 2011 has created 45 full-time and other contractor positions and enabled a ramp-up in production to 9,000 tires per day.
“The increase in production will help us with the demand in the market and to meet the needs of customers seeking world-class Bridgestone and Firestone truck and bus tires,” says Steve Shelton, senior vice president, technology, manufacturing and procurement, BATO.
The Warren County facility, which began operations in 1990, earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2008, becoming the first tire plant in the world to do so.
The company says LEED is awarded internationally to buildings for excellent energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and resource stewardship. It is rarely awarded to existing manufacturing sites. Warren County along with BATO’s Aiken County, S.C. plant are the only LEED-certified tire plants in the world.
The Warren County facility has also been recognized as an OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star site.
BATO, based in Nashville, Tenn., is a business unit of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. For more information about Bridgestone Americas, visit the company’s website.
