former Bridgestone employees back at their Béthune factory

Making something new out of the old in an old tire industry is the bet of this business leader, Laurent Cabassu, Managing Director of Black Star, who already specializes in the reconditioning of utility tyres. In Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), it targets private cars with a single factory in France. Each, 2,000 tires are sorted, stripped before being covered with a new layer of rubber. Result: you get a tire like new, but sold 35% cheaper.

30 employees out of 800 taken over

In addition to that, if the company decided to settle on the Bridgestone site, it is no coincidence. “We recovered a second-hand factory that we transformed, but we have all the benefits of investments, infrastructure, machinery and processes of a factory that was 60 years old”, explains Laurent Cabassu. It is precisely with the former employees of the premises that this adventure began. These 30 employees, out of more than 800 sacked in 200 after the closure of the factory, are happy to continue and forget the past trauma.