Pirelli brings high-end tire production back to Italy

Starting this March, the first P Zero Race tires produced at the Pirelli factory in Italy will arrive on the market. This factory will be dedicated to high-end lines.

Source: Press Release

Bicycle tire production has begun at Pirelli’s Bollate plant, making it the only factory to industrially manufacture Made in Italy bicycle tires. A few kilometers from Milan, the historic structure, inaugurated in 1962 by Pirelli, has long been undergoing a modernization and reorganization process to accommodate the production of Pirelli Cycling’s high-end lines.

The factory will indeed be dedicated to the production of high-tech bicycle tires, including all models of the P Zero Race family, in an updated, Made in Italy version, on sale from March. Bollate will produce tires for both amateurs and athletes from UCI cycling teams, including Trek-Segafredo, UAE Team Emirates, AG2R Citroën, and MTB teams such as Wilier Triestina-Pirelli and Canyon CLLCTV-Pirelli, all already Pirelli partners and actively involved in the development of the Italian company’s tires. Furthermore, the factory’s proximity to Pirelli’s headquarters and R&D department will accelerate the development of future bicycle products.

Thanks to its leadership in the development of Ultra High Performance car tires, Pirelli has been able to transfer its now consolidated experience in innovative processes to the bicycle tire sector. The Bollate factory is a unique case in this field, and innovation is visible at all levels: not only in the robotization of processes, which guarantees extreme qualitative reliability and geometric precision of the product – a particularly crucial aspect for bicycle tires due to their reduced dimensions and weight. Every process has been designed and implemented in consistency with the specificities of the bicycle tire, with the highest safety standards and high automation; thanks to CE certified machines and the consolidated skills of the personnel, a level of quality will be guaranteed such that the products thus obtained will be reference models.

The renovation of employee areas also continues, to provide a comfortable environment for the personnel working in the factory. A complete makeover of the buildings and exteriors is planned, with more contemporary lines. The result will be a modern, efficient industrial complex, well integrated into the urban context, allowing the manufacture of tires according to the highest quality standards and with the performance for which Pirelli is already recognized in the market.

Production of the first tires has begun, while the complete renovation of the industrial facilities is expected to be completed by early 2023.

“It is a great satisfaction to give a new face and a new function to the Bollate factory, bringing part of bicycle tire production back to Italy, and this is all the more so in the year we celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary. The bicycle has great historical and symbolic value for us: bicycle tires were indeed the first types of tires to be produced by Pirelli, and today we are bringing this sector of our activity back a few kilometers from our headquarters. The Bollate project also allows us to add value to the territory, through interventions aimed at modernizing and making both the establishment itself and the surrounding context sustainable,” says Andrea Casaluci, General Manager of Pirelli Operations.