New plant manager at Cooper Tire’s Tupelo site

Jim Pritchett has been appointed plant manager of the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company tyre making facility in Tupelo, USA. In this capacity takes on responsibility for directing all plant operations, with a focus on manufacturing excellence including safety, product quality, manufacturing, equipment reliability, efficiency, sustainability, process improvement and standardisation.

Pritchett has nearly three decades of experience in manufacturing, serving in positions of increasing responsibility throughout his career. He joins Cooper after six years with AdvanSix, a resin and chemicals business that was formerly a unit of Honeywell, where he served in plant manager and operations manager roles. Prior to AdvanSix, he served as a plant manager for three facilities, and later as director of North American operations, for Jiffy International, a leading worldwide supplier within the horticultural industry. Earlier in his career, Pritchett spent 17 years with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where he held a number of technology engineering positions and was ultimately promoted to product quality Manager for original equipment and RLT tyres, a role where he led a large team that worked directly with several major vehicle manufacturers.

The Tupelo plant has been producing tyres since 1984 and has approximately 1,600 full-time workers.