Bridgestone Profit for 2000 Fell 80% Amid Tire Recall

Profit at Bridgestone Corp. plunged 80% last year, dragged down by the cost of a massive tire recall that led to a loss of $510 million for the year at its U.S. subsidiary, the company said.

The Japanese tire maker, criticized for slow crisis management in the recall, also said Thursday that it nominated a foreigner as a member of its board of directors for the first time. It named John Lampe, who is chief executive of its U.S. subsidiary Bridgestone/Firestone, to the post, subject to shareholder approval next month.

In August, Nashville-based Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million Firestone-brand tires of the types linked to traffic accidents that left at least 174 dead and more than 700 injured. Most of the reported accidents involved Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles.

Bridgestone profit fell to about $152 million for the fiscal year ended in December, largely because of the recall that cost the company about $754 million. It earned about $762 million in 1999. Sales fell 4% to about $17 billion.

The results were largely in line with the company’s revised forecast released in December.

Bridgestone kept its earnings outlook for fiscal 2001 unchanged at $413 million.

Bridgestone President Yoichiro Kaizaki, who has said he will step down next month to take responsibility for the recall, said his company’s image was badly hurt and there was no telling when the damage would end.

Sales of Firestone tires fell 40% last year. Overall sales at Bridgestone/Firestone, including brands other than Firestone, totaled $7.55 billion last year, about the same as the previous year.

Lampe, 53, an American, replaced Masatoshi Ono, who resigned in October. Lampe joined Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. in 1973. Bridgestone bought out Firestone in 1988.