Bridgestone

"The latest reason for Michelin’s stagnation: the arrival of the Japanese. In this field too, as in the automobile industry, Japanese manufacturers have come to shake things up. For the moment, Bridgestone, Yokohama, Sumitomo, and other Toyo brands represent barely more than two to three percent of the entire American market. But the percentage is misleading. Nearly twenty-two percent of the cars sold in 1981 in the United States were Japanese and equipped with Japanese tires. With technology that has made fantastic leaps in a few years, Japanese manufacturers have concentrated their efforts on certain regions of the United States and on high-end tires. Notably in the heavy-duty segment (where they make up about ten percent of the second-hand market)."

"François Michelin also knows that he still has much to do to consolidate the foundations of his own house. Everywhere in nearly all the markets that Bibendum has conquered through sheer effort, Bridgestone, the new Japanese tire giant, threatens to establish itself. The Japanese brand supplies half of the Japanese automobile production, which became the world’s largest in 1980 and 1981. In the United States, it quickly delivered to Michelin’s customers at a time when Michelin was out of stock. It plans to purchase the Firestone plant in Nashville, Tennessee, and increase its production capacity to 3,000 truck tires per day in 1983. In Europe, it is laying the groundwork, making contacts, and beginning to supply Scandinavia, Great Britain, and West Germany. It, too, is eyeing Formula 1. The result: a wild growth, as fast or faster than the French group over the past five years, with revenues of three billion dollars in 1980 (nearly seventy percent of which was from tires) achieved with only thirty-one thousand employees, gross self-financing margins of twenty-five percent, and a net profit nearly twice that of Michelin in 1980. Bridgestone, in recent years, has also surpassed General Tire, Uniroyal, BF Goodrich, Continental, Dunlop, and Pirelli to occupy the fourth place worldwide. A formidable challenger."