OUTSOURCING: Bridgestone Picks Poznan for European Bookkeeping
01 Jul 2011 • by Natalie Aster
Merely three months after announcing a new manufacturing project in Poland, a PLN 130m factory of protective films for solar panels, Japanese industrial giant Bridgestone is ready for another endeavor. The company, which produces automotive tires and rubber air springs in Poland, has decided to establish a shared services centre in Poznan, which will take care of bookkeeping for Bridgestone's European operations.
Phase one of the project is to create 115 white collar jobs, but should Bridgestone choose to expand the center's competences, the final figure may be much higher. Poznan's biggest rival had been reportedly Brussels, as the European Bridgestone HQ is located in Zaventem, a satellite town of the Belgian capital. Poznan is home to business process outsourcing and shared services centers of such major international corporations as Carlsberg, IKEA, McKinsey, KPMG, Franklin Templeton, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, MAN, and Arvato Services.
Established in 1931, Bridgestone has some 50 factories worldwide (including four in Poland), employing some 138,000 workers. Its global turnover came to USD 28.2bn in 2009.
In Poland, Bridgestone has two tire plants: in Poznan and Stargard Szczecinski. The Poznan site, specializing in passenger car tires, is currently being upgraded at the cost of EUR 105m. As a result of the ongoing investments, its daily output is to grow from 23,600 up to 29,200 tires, and its workforce – from 1,400 to 1,600 employees by 2014. Built at the cost of some PLN 800m, the Stargard plant focuses on truck & bus tires and employs 600 staff.
Bridgestone's subsidiary Firestone Industrial Products makes rubber air springs in Wolsztyn (70km southwest of Poznan). The new EVA films factory in Zarow, in the Walbrzych zone, is to be operational in 2013 with a staff of 67.
The above news abstract has been taken from a bi-weekly newsletter to professionals doing business in Poland "news2biz - Poland".
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