Bridgestone has opened a $3 million Bandag Training Center on its Akron, Ohio, campus, adding a dedicated site for teaching commercial tire dealer and fleet personnel about retreaded tires. The company said the facility is intended to explain the performance, sustainability and financial benefits of retreading and to host hundreds of industry professionals each year through seminars and tailored classes of various sizes.
The center occupies nearly 15,000 square feet inside the company’s tire test lab, next to the Bridgestone Americas Advanced Tire Production Center. Its equipment includes a complete retread facility with production-scale manufacturing machinery and stations for each of the ten retreading steps. The layout also includes a classroom and a Bandag history walk, combining hands-on production exposure with structured instruction. The company said the center is designed to accommodate seminars and classes of different sizes.
Second U.S. training hub
The Akron site is the second designated Bandag Training Center in Bridgestone’s network, joining the Bandag Learning Center in Muscatine, Iowa. Bridgestone said the two locations are meant to improve access to training and technical resources and to help meet demand from dealers and fleets. The company described both facilities as cornerstone assets for employees and customers, supporting education, innovation and expertise in tire retreading. It added that the training is highly valued by customers, both fleets and dealers.
Brian Douglas, vice president, Retread North America, said Bandag retreads have been a staple solution in the commercial tire industry for more than half a century. He said the second training center is intended to strengthen Bridgestone’s support for dealers and fleets, matching the value they receive from retreads in service.
Training and development roles
When the Akron center is not hosting classes, Bridgestone plans to use it as an additional site for tire-retreading innovation. Teams in Muscatine, Akron and Nashville are expected to support testing of new products and the introduction of new manufacturing equipment and processes. The company said that work is aimed at further advancing the retreading segment.
Bandag has provided tire-retreading solutions since 1957. Bridgestone said the business currently operates three pre-cured tread rubber manufacturing facilities, a retread equipment manufacturing facility and a mold manufacturing plant in the United States to support North America. Over its 65-year history, Bandag has diverted more than 300 million tires from landfills by extending their service lives through retreading, according to the company.
The company frames retreading as a way to extend tire service life and support more sustainable mobility. In addition to customer training, the Akron center is intended to give Bridgestone another place to test retread products and introduce manufacturing equipment and processes for the North American market.