Bridgestone is celebrating back-to-back tyre manufacturer of the year titles for first time in a huge coup for the company, after winning the National Tyre Distributors Association’s headline award for a second successive year.
The world’s number one tyre and rubber company added to its 2015 success by winning the category once more, whilst also scooping the staff training & development accolade to complete a memorable night.
The NTDA trophies represent a significant breakthrough for the business and pays tribute to the giant strides made by its senior management team over the past 12 months once again.
Bridgestone was keen to highlight its many achievements since triumphing in 2015, including its Investors in People silver award, the launch of its DriveGuard tyre and the introduction of its industry leading Retorque commercial app.
Bridgestone’s managing director Robin Shaw said the awards were testament to the company’s ‘one team’ approach, where all elements of the business work together to showcase a wide range of best practice achievements.
He said: “We are so proud to win the NTDA’s Tyre Manufacturer of the Year award for 2016, after also triumphing 12 months ago in the same category.
“It is such a difficult award to win. We thought it was something special in 2015, so to have won it for a second time is incredible.
“It validates the tremendous amount of hard work that everyone at the company carries out on a daily basis in an attempt to meet our ‘Serving Society with Superior Quality’ mission statement.
“We were keen to highlight the many successes we’ve recorded since winning in 2015, while communicating how the many different parts of our business works together to product some memorable results.”
Meanwhile, Bridgestone was also celebrating after winning the NTDA’s Staff Training & Development award.
Bridgestone’s training scheme, headed up by training and development managers Phil Thirsk and Paul Turner, covers a broad range of relevant, practical courses for its network of dealers.
It is the only known provision to provide assessments in the workplace to minimise disruption, while Bridgestone can also tailor its package of support to suit each individual dealer, as and when required.
In total, around 700 industry professionals benefit from Bridgestone’s health and safety courses per year. Over the course of eight years, this amounts to around 8,000 people since training began.
Phil said: “Our customers don’t need to lose their technicians for a day. We like to assess technicians within their working environment rather than having to take time out of their place of work.
“We don’t know of any competitors who will go on site to provide assessments in a place of work. We believe that this makes us unique.”
NTDA’s chief executive Stefan Hay commented: “This is another fantastic result for Bridgestone who, once again, have set the bar very high. Seeing Bridgestone’s training team win – featuring Phil Thirsk, who is also the Chairman of the REACT Steering Group and with whom I have worked very closely over the last three years – was terrific.
“And then a second year as manufacturer of the year is a tremendous effort. Bridgestone has truly wowed the judges!”
Robin added: “To be able to refer to ourselves as the NTDA’s Tyre Manufacturer of the Year once again is a tremendous achievement and something that we should all be proud of. To also receive such validation for our provision of training is also extremely satisfying.
“Now we must continue to look ahead – with renewed confidence – and grow as a business.”
