| Transcription | Firestone Plans To Build 18th Tire Plant In France / Site to be selected soon
By JOSEPH E. KUEBLER
Business And Industrial Writer
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.'s decision to establish its first manufacturing operation in France was announced in Paris today by Chairman Harvey S. Firestone Jr.
The multi-million dollar installation will include a tire
plant as well as facilities to produce special synthetic rubbers and latices.
IT WILL be the Akron company's 18th tire plant outside of the United States.
Firestone has been distributing tires in France for many years, the chairman added, but it is setting up the new facilities to meet the expanding needs of the country.
France is now the third largest tire market in the world, Firestone pointed out, after the United States and the United Kingdom. It has more than 5,000,000 motor vehicles registered and over 600,000 farm tractors in operation.
The nation also has a rapidly growing motor vehicle export business, third in size in the world after West Germany and the United Kingdom.
A full line of tires and tubes for passenger cars, trucks, busses, farm equipment, motorcycles and scooters will be produced in the plant.
Selection of the site is to be made soon and construction will begin immediately thereafter, Firestone disclosed. The tire plant is expected to be ready late in 1960.
"We have investigated a number of sites and have several under consideration" he said. "The site will be outside the Paris area in accordance with the French government's program of decentralization of industry."
IN STUDYING the location,
Firestone is considering transportation and shipping facilities, availability of power, water and sufficient land to allow for future expansion.
The Akron industrialist assured the French that the purchase of supplies will be made from sources within the country as much as possible. Many of the raw materials required for production are available there.
"This will result in indirect employment for many others in addition to those directly employed in our manufacturing operations" Chairman Firestone commented.
TWO AKRON firms thus will have new plants under construction in France at the same time. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has acquired 75 acres of land in Amiens, 80 miles north of Paris, and has started work on a tire plant that will cost more than $7,000,000.
Goodyear plans to lay the cornerstone for this factory Nov. 3.
Akron's other tie with the French rubber industry is Kleber-Colombes, an associate company of B. F. Goodrich. This is a successor to the rubber firm which Goodrich established there in 1910 and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary until World War II. |
