Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone's plant in Tatabanya has been certified to make direct deliveries to four large global vehicle makers, BMW, Audi, the Volkswagen Group and Mercedes, the company announced February 4. 

Last year the company produced 5mn tyres and sold 40% of its production directly to domestic and international car manufacturers.

Bridgestone Tatabanya completed the installation of its artificial intelligence-based digital tyre manufacturing machines in its second plant unit, which was opened in 2017 from an HUF85bn (€268mn) investment. 

Last year, the company built a 10,000 sqm warehouse with an investment of $9.2bn, which increased storage capacity to 600,000. Bridgestone began operations in the central Hungarian town in 2008, specialising in tyres for premium-category cars, passenger cars with high-speed rating, and cross-country vehicles. Payroll rose by 200 to 1,200 in 2018.

The company is planning to expand capacity further to boost output to 7.2mn in 2020. Bridgestone has a network of 750 suppliers, mostly Hungarian SME's from which the company bought goods and services worth HUF4.6bn last year.

The company has seen its sales grow dynamically in the last three years. Sales grew to HUF66.5bn in 2018 from HUF53.1bn in 2017 compared to HUF36bn in 2016.

Last year a record 3mn tyres were sold in Hungary, a 10% rise from 2017, as sales in all segments registered growth, the Hungarian Tyre Association announced. Tyre manufacturing is one of the fastest growing industries, with production value reaching HUF528bn, or 1.5% of GDP.