Tire manufacturer Bridgestone Americas is closing its LaVergne, Tennessee, truck and bus radial tire plant and laying off 700 workers there, the company announced in a news release. Bridgestone said the closure will help the company “optimize its business footprint” and “strengthen its competitiveness.”

Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas will shut down its longtime tire plant in La Vergne in July. That decision alone erases 700 hourly and salaried roles, in addition to other "workforce reductions in the company’s U.