Bridgestone Americas will invest $550 million to expand and modernize the tire manufacturer’s factory in Warren County, Tennessee, a move that will grow the plant’s workforce by 380 people to more than 1,400.
The plant in Morrison, about 70 miles southeast of Nashville, opened its doors in 1990 and specializes in making truck and bus radial tires. The planned expansion will add 850,000 square feet to the facility, which will span 2.8 million square feet once construction is completed in the spring of 2024. The work focuses on adding capacity and growing Bridgestone’s use of radio frequency identification tags in its tires to help customers better track and manage the state of their tires.
Bridgestone executives said this week the expansion also will add technology to integrate tire-mounted sensors for fleet management applications. The company this summer announce a collaboration with Pilot Co. to install tire monitoring technology at 200 Pilot and Flying J travel centers around the country.
“We are moving our Warren County plant forward, driven by growing demand for our products, our commitment to investing in U.S. manufacturing and our Warren County team’s dedication to innovation, efficient and quality for our customers,” Bridgestone America President and CEO Paolo Ferrari said in a statement. “Our Warren County plant team plays a vital role in supporting our company’s commitment to providing safe and sustainable mobility solutions.”
The Warren County plant produced its millionth tire less than three years after opening and last October made its 70 millionth tire. Bridgestone in late 2018 began investing in a $40 million expansion that pushed daily production to 9,400 tires, nearly four times its capacity of 25 years earlier.
Across the United States, Bridgestone employs nearly 10,000 manufacturing workers. The company’s Americas headquarters is in downtown Nashville.
