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BLACK STAR -
A TRANSFORMATION IN BÉTHUNE
The French passenger and 4x4 tyre retreader Black Star has been very much in the news over the course of the last 18 months following the announcement that the company, together with its major shareholder, Mobivia, had struck a deal with Bridgestone to develop an integrated tyre recycling ecosystem on the site of the former Bridgestone tyre plant in Béthune, France. Following the more recent launch of Black Star’s new “made-in-Béthune” retread under the brand name Leonard,
David Wilson travelled to Northern France to view the transformation that has taken place in Béthune, offering a new life to the plant and new careers to a number of the ex-Bridgestone staff who worked there. What he found was a unique project which may offer a valuable insight into how decommissioned tyre factories around the world could be repurposed along circular economy lines in the future.
Black Star was originally founded in 1979 by Alain Rosier, and since then has operated from its factory in St Pierre de Boeuf, near Lyon, specialising in car tyres with a focus on 4x4 and off-road. Historica- lly Rosier was a pioneer in the marketing of passenger and 4x4 re- treads, and older readers with a good memory may remember the company being featured in the very first edition of Retreading Busi- ness 26 years ago.
In 2018, the company was purchased from Rosier by current CEO, Jean-Baptiste Pieret, who had identified the benefits of French-ma-
de retreads within the circular economy and saw an opportunity. Pieret had no previous knowledge of retreading (his background is in finance), but he liked Rosier’s respect for quality, told him he would take care of his life’s work, and purchased the company.
After a while he identified three major issues. The first was in ca- sing management, where despite the well organised collection and recycling system in France, the control of casings was largely in the hands of others. The second was the structure of distribution chan- nels, which were usually owned by tyre manufacturers, and the third
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