Established in 1931 in Japan by Shojiro Ishibashi, Bridgestone Corporation is today considered to be the one of the largest tire and rubber companies in the world. In 1932, Bridgestone became the first tire manufacturing company to manufacture and supply tires nationally. 50 years later, the company bought a tire plant in La Vergne, Tennessee from Firestone Tire & Rubber. After this purchase, Bridgestone went from strength to strength, climbing up to become one of the big 3 of Tire companies.
A technology-intensive company, Bridgestone invests heavily in research and development programs that have proven to be highly productive, yielding important improvements and completely new products in automotive as well as non-automotive applications.
The company provides tires for Formula 1, MotoGP and GP2 and uses race technology in their ultra-high-performance road tires.