Bridgestone Corp. said Friday its group net profit in the 2004 business year surged 29 percent from the previous year to 114.45 billion yen due to brisk tire sales in Europe and North and South America.

In a consolidated earnings report for the January-December period, Bridgestone said its pretax profit jumped 8.5 percent to 181.59 billion yen on a 4.9 percent rise in sales to 2.42 trillion yen.

The firm's global tire sales grew 5 percent to 1.93 trillion yen, while sales in the nontire sectors, including its auto-parts and building-material segments, expanded 6 percent to 512.7 billion yen.