Goodyear’s rationalisation plan – will Beaurepaires disappear from Australia?

Last September, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company approved a “rationalisation plan” for its operations in Australia and New Zealand, an overhaul that involves divesting or closing 100 retail and fleet locations and nine warehouses. With Australian media reporting that negotiations for a sale have faltered, the number of retail sites to close may end up being more than this quoted figure.

Local subsidiary Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres Australia and New Zealand operates three retail networks in Australia, with approximately 550 company owned, franchised and licensed centres trading under the Goodyear Autocare, Dunlop Super Dealer and Beaurepaires names. The latter is the largest of the three, with over 240 company owned outlets throughout Australia.

Unsuccessful sale talks

Major Australian media portal news.com.au portal shares that Beaurepaires now “looks set to close” after negotiations to sell the business fell through. It mentions 100 centres being affected, citing Goodyear’s communication from September 2023, however this number represents only around 40 per cent of the Beaurepaires retail network.

An anonymous source told news.com.au that Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres had been negotiating the sale of Beaurepaires to Bob Jane Corporation, which operates the 134-outlet Bob Jane T-Marts network. Instead of acquiring all Beaurepaires retail centres, the source said Bob Jane instead chose “the select few that actually make money.”

Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres has also rebranded some Beaurepaires stores as Goodyear Autocare, which may account for some of the approximately ten outlets joining that network since last July. Even so, the number of Beaurepaires sites threatened with closure should the network fold may well be more than the 100 locations announced last September.

Neither Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres nor the Bob Jane Corporation have officially commented on their negotiations. According to the anonymous source, the remaining Beaurepaires stores will close by April 2024, however, news.com.au says Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres Australia denies this claim. Although Lauren Voucatos, the company’s human resources and communications lead, confirmed that Goodyear had “begun to evaluate different scenarios for different parts of our business,” no final decision has been made.

Rationalisation by end of 2024

As Tyrepress.com reported last September, Goodyear anticipates completing its Asia Pacific rationalisation plan by the end of 2024. Other aspects of this plan include the outsourcing of distribution.

Goodyear appointed Tyremax Australia Australian and New Zealand distributor for Goodyear tyres in September 2023, and the independent wholesaler anticipates commencing in this capacity this April. National Tyre & Wheel, named exclusive distributor for the Dunlop brand that same month, also expects to begin its remit in Australia in April. It began exclusively distributing Dunlop tyres within New Zealand in November 2023.