Bridgestone Corp. posts sales of nearly $29 billion in 2007

Feb. 19, 2008

Bridgestone Corp. posted net income of 131.6 billion yen on net sales of 3.39 trillion yen for its fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2007. That compares to income of 85.1 billion yen on sales of 2.99 trillion yen for fiscal 2006.

Based on the annual average exchange rate, Bridgestone posted net income of $1.1 billion on sales of $28.8 billion. As a percentage of sales, the company's net income increased from 2.8% in 2006 to 3.9% in 2007.

Operating income also was up year to year, from 190.8 billion yen to 249.9 billion, a 31% increase.

Here are the financial results broken down by geographical segment.

Japan: sales, 1.37 trillion yen; operating income, 147.5 billion yen.

The Americas: sales, 1.51 trillion yen; operating income, 51.5 billion yen.

Europe: sales, 516 billion yen; operating income, 17.2 billion yen.

Other: sales, 548.6 billion yen; operating income, 37.6 billion yen.

In the Americas, sales increased 13.2% over the previous year to $12.8 billion. "Sales in almost all operations in both the tire and diversified products segments surpassed those in the previous year," says the company.

Worldwide tire sales totaled 2.756 trillion yen, which represents 81.2% of the company's sales. Compared to 2006, tire sales were up 15%. Bridgestone's operating income in the tire segment was up 40%.

Bridgestone says it projects the operating environment to remain challenging in 2008. "Raw material and energy costs are anticipated to continue to increase. Concurrently, concerns about a possible economic slowdown in Japan and the United States have heightened. Changes in demand and increasing competition are also expected to contribute to these global business challenges.

"In Japan, management expects unit sales of tires in the original equipment sector to increase over the previous year, while unit sales of tires in the replacement sector... remain on par with the previous year." It also projects unit sales of export tires to remain on par with those in 2007.

"In the Americas, management projects unit sales to remain on par with the previous year in passenger car and light truck tires," says the company. It also projects an increase in unit sales of truck and bus tires.

"In Europe, management expects unit sales gains in passenger car, light truck, truck and bus tires over the prior year."