Bridgestone sells tennis balls business to Yonex

Tokyo, Japan – Bridgestone Corporation (Bridgestone) announced that Bridgestone Sport Co., Ltd. (BSP), Bridgestone’s subsidiary in Japan, will sell all of its stock of Bridgestone Tecnifibre Co., Ltd. (BSTF) to YONEX CO., LTD. BSP has already withdrawn from tennis goods business as of December 31, 2020.

Bridgestone is restructuring the portfolio of its diversified products business to sharply focus on areas where it can leverage its core competencies. This is part of the overall reinforcement of portfolio management in the Mid Term Business Plan (2021-2023), announced on February 16, 2021. The Mid Term Business Plan aims to rebuild earning power through expense and cost structure reformation and enforcing premium business strategy to allow the company to enhance strategic growth investment. By executing these strategies, Bridgestone is transforming to a “strong” Bridgestone capable of adapting to the changing business environment. BSTF is also working closely with its employees, local communities, customers and suppliers to minimize the impact of this transaction as much as possible.

The Bridgestone Group will reinforce its portfolio management in line with the changing business environment, to evolve to a sustainable solutions company which aims to continuously provide social value and customer value. Bridgestone expects the impact on its consolidated financial results for 2021 to be minor