ATC Outlines Desire to Acquire Goodyear OTR Tyre Facility

Amongst the regular assortment of correspondence postal workers deliver to Goodyear each day will shortly appear a letter proposing the purchase of its Topeka, Kansas facility. The people at American Tire Corporation (ATC) have produced a letter to this affect, and it appears they have already licked the envelope seal, stuck on a stamp, and dropped the acquisition offer through the slot of the nearest mailbox.

According to ATC, under the proposal ATC would buy out Goodyear’s OTR tyre facility in Topeka at “any reasonable price.” Built in 1944 by US government, Goodyear’s Topeka tyre plant is the largest Goodyear OTR tyre facility in the world and the company’s only one in North America. Should such an acquisition be successful, ATC says it will spend US$200 million modernising this “old OTR tyre plant” (to quote ATC), increase production capacity for all sizes of OTR tyres by a minimum of 20 per cent, and “create more job opportunities with a better annual pay in the state of Kansas.”

According to an ATC spokesperson, this proposed acquisition will not affect ATC’s manufacturing activities in Washington; rather it constitutes a further expansion of the company’s OTR tyre business. ATC says that, if the acquisition is successful, the Topeka facility will be modernised to incorporate the most advanced technology, leading to an improvement in not only in capacity, but also in product quality “to the top level in the OTR tyre industry.” The company maintains its stated objective of becoming the “largest and best” manufacturer of 63 and 57-inch tyres.

Goodyear has not at present commented on the offer of acquisition, and prior to the ATC press statement had not indicated any intention of selling this facility.