According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest tyre (tire) manufacturer in the world is Lego! Although Lego did not start producing tires for their sets until 1962, by 2010 they were producing more than 380 million tires.
The largest real tire manufacturer in the world by revenue is Michelin, which overtook Bridgestone in 2021. Bridgestone had previously held the No. 1 spot for 11 years.
Bridgestone opened its off-the-road radial tire plant in Aiken in 2014. At that time, there were 6,818 manufacturing jobs in Aiken County which has increased to 8,464 in 2021, an increase of 24 percent.
During the same period (2014-2021), the number of jobs in Aiken County increased by 5.5 percent. The number of manufacturing establishments in Aiken has grown from 93 in 2014 to 113 in 2021, or 21.5 percent. The number of establishments in Aiken County grew by 16 percent between 2014 and 2021.
Annual pay in manufacturing in Aiken County was $68,901 in 2021 up from $59,347 in 2014, or 16 percent. Annual pay in Aiken County did grow faster over the eight years at 20 percent but remains at a lower level than in manufacturing, at an average of $55,515 in 2021.
Not all the growth in manufacturing, or Aiken County, can be attributed to Bridgestone, but at a time when manufacturing jobs have been threatened by overseas production and changing consumer habits, Bridgestone has certainly played its part in the economic development of Aiken County.
