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COMPANY
REPORT
issue was the need for a factory with the capacity to absorb the new segment they wanted to catch.
“We analysed the market and decided that we did not just need to develop our company, we needed to take a much wider view and create a whole ecosystem,” says Pieret.
Around this time, Pieret heard on the radio that Bridgestone was planning to close its new tyre plant in Béthune and wondered whe- ther there might be some way in which Black Star might be able to capitalise on the know-how present among the ex-Bridgestone staff, but also realised that this was something that he was unlikely to be able to do on his own.
ALLIANCE WITH MOBIVIA
He therefore approached Lille-based automotive retailer Mobivia, which operates 2,100 points of sales across a number of European markets with brand names such as ATU, Midas and Norauto, and in- vited them to become involved in the process. The result was that Mobivia acquired a 60% majority shareholding of Black Star, with Pieret retaining the remaining 40%.
Says Pieret: “We saw that Mobivia could provide both secure sa- les and a secure source of casings. It’s important to find a good collaborator. We have an aligned view on the long-term with re- gards to this project, but we know that it will take a long time.”
The third piece of the jigsaw was Bridgestone themselves, and Pieret managed to get an agreement with the tyre manufacturer oc- cupy part of the Béthune plant, acquire and use the old equipment, rubber compounds and the old IT process. “The idea,” says Pieret, “was to re-industrialise the site, re-use the equipment, and re-use the knowledge that is there, and re-use the site.”
Black Star have now been present in Béthune since January 2022 and started to market the first Leonard branded tyres made in the plant at the start of April. During the 15-month ramp up phase the plant has been developed from a defunct new tyre plant into a mo- dern passenger tyre retreading facility of a kind you are unlikely to see anywhere else in the world.
Jean-Baptiste Pieret: “Developing this concept is a big challenge. We need to find a smart way to move forward. We’re not the answer – we’re part of the answer. It won’t be easy, but if we put quality and safety first, it can be done.”
Black Star currently occupy around 25% of the Bridgestone plant. Most of the rest is empty, although there are a couple of smaller re- cycling operations in situ in different corners of the plant including a battery recycler.
REPURPOSING THE BRIDGESTONE PLANT
The man responsible for putting together the new Black Star facility is ex-Bridgestone man, Industrial Director Bruno Lagnaux, who exp- lained the process to us. The main point, of course, is that Black Star were not able to put the plant wherever they liked within the huge facility, due account needed to be taken of where existing machinery and pipework was located. Everything, therefore, needed to be built around the location of the existing press lines, most of which have been repurposed for the retread plant, with more available should capacity need to be increased. This is highly relevant because al- though the plant is currently only producing 800 tyres a day, with a short-term target of 1,000 per day, the ultimate plan is to reach 5 mi- llion tyres a year in 5 years’ time. This is more than the UK retreader, Technic was producing at the height of their success in the 1990s.
“It is important to understand the adjustment process involved in constructing the new plant,” says Lagneaux. “Everything at the plant
One of the new TRM Eagle P2004 buffing machines in the newly constructed buffing department
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