Firestone

History of the Company

In 1900, Harvey Firestone began producing pneumatic car tires in Akron, Ohio. Three years later, he founded the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, which produced tires not only for cars, but also for trucks, buses, and agricultural machinery.

Due to the high quality of its products, the company became one of the largest manufacturers by the mid-20th century and has been the main supplier of tires to Ford factories for a long time. Since 1988, their products have been manufactured under the Bridgestone brand, one of the most popular auto tires in the world. The company's success in the tire industry led to its expansion into other areas, such as the production of roofing materials.

In 1980, Firestone Building Products began using polymer rubber technology to create EPDM coatings, which are still successfully in use today.

By 1983, they opened an EPDM roofing material manufacturing plant in Prescott, Arkansas, which became the largest in the world within a few years.

The company continued to grow and expand its product range, including production of bitumen-polymer membranes, insulation, thermal insulation, and accessories. They also developed products for installing reservoirs, canals, and fountains, such as the Firestone PondGard Rubber Liners waterproofing and Firestone EPDM/fPP-R geomembranes.

In 1990, Firestone Building Products opened a branch with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to promote their products in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They have since developed an extensive network of contractors, distributors, and sales representatives.

Product Quality

Firestone Building Products places great importance on the quality of its products and uses modern equipment in its factories. They have rigorous control at each stage of the technological process, beginning with selection of raw materials. Their TPO membrane and other product factories have received certificates of compliance with ISO 9001 quality management systems and ISO 14001 environmental management systems. Additionally, the European CE marking on their products serves an additional guarantee of compliance with global standards for technical characteristics, safety, health care operation, noise protection, environmental protection, and economy.

One of their main products is UltraPly TPO roofing, developed after extensive research in their laboratories. This roofing system is a flexible thermoplastic polyolefin membrane made of polypropylene and ethylene propylene rubber, reinforced with polyester fiber.

Firestone today

Firestone Building Products produces EPDM membranes at two plants in America, TPO membranes at three plants, insulation at nine plants, and bitumen membranes (APP, SBS, BUR) at two plants.

They plan to expand production by organizing a foreign enterprise based on the Pyrenean company, Giscosa, which they acquired in 2013. The new enterprise will produce roofing and waterproofing materials, including window protection membranes, clean membranes without powder, and sheets of non-standard thickness and width, in addition to their traditional products.