Founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Akron, Ohio. It is one of the oldest, biggest and best-known tyremakers in the world. Goodyear makes tyres for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, racing cars, aeroplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery. Find all the news and analysis you need relating to Goodyear here.
The latest edition of our regular Retreading Special feature again looks at the industry in the UK, Europe and around the world. Companies included in our September 2008 special include Goodyear Dunlop, Bandvulc, Galgo, Vipal and Goodway.
Goodyear Dunlop has signed a ‘substantial’ fleet deal with Translinc, the UK’s leading provider of specialist fleet management and passenger services to local authorities, schools, health authorities and public sector clients. The deal includes all tyre orders for Translinc’s 2700 strong fleet of vans and trucks being looked after by Goodyear Dunlop’s TruckForce service network.
The contract includes the latest Goodyear Max Technology tyre that reduces cost per mile through improving fuel consumption and mileage with the help of low rolling resistance and innovative design. Supplying a variety of vehicles, from car derived vans to large refuse trucks, the majority on a contract hire with maintenance basis, TransLinc required a bespoke, cost effective tyre package to its customers.
Goodyear has chosen IMG Licensing, a division of global sports and entertainment company IMG, as its agency for licensing the Goodyear brand outside of North America. According to IMG, Goodyear is looking to extend the brand beyond its core products in ways that both enhance the company’s image and provide new streams of profitable revenue.
According to Bob Paciulan, manager of licensed products for Goodyear, the company has licensed close to 70 companies worldwide. “However, to take this to the next level we needed a company with local offices and licensing professionals throughout the world with a proven track record of developing brands successfully,” Paciulan stated. “IMG fit the bill perfectly and showed they understand how and where we wish to leverage the Goodyear brand. We’re very pleased to bring IMG onto the Goodyear licensing team.”
The commercial truck tyre production unit at Goodyear’s Topeka, Kansas plant will shut for a week on Monday 22 September. A spokesman reported that the reason for the closure is that the supply of raw materials had been affected by Hurricaine Ike. The plant will continue to manufacture OTR and military tyres, while Truck staff members have the option of using a weeks’ holiday allowance or taking a week of voluntary layoff.
Goodyear has announced that it has put pen to paper on an agreement to supply Flight Custom III tires for Patty Wagstaff Airshows’ Cirrus Extra 300S aircraft.
Pierre Jambon, the general manager of Goodyear’s Global Aviation business says that, “Patty Wagstaff is widely recognized as the world’s premier female aerobatic pilot. We are thrilled that she has chosen to help promote Goodyear, and we look forward to a long collaboration.”
Wagstaff has been selected for the U.S. Aerobatic Team six times, having won gold, silver and bronze medals in international aerobatic competition. She was the first woman to become U.S. National Aerobatic champion and one of the few people to claim that particular victory on three occasions. Wagstaff regularly amazes audiences with her spectacular routines at airshow events across the U.S. and in Canada.
Bridgestone and Goodyear are to receive up to 30 million US dollars, following the approval by the North Carolina Department of Commerce of state incentive plans. The grants from the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund are designed to give companies the incentive to upgrade existing manufacturing facilities, therefore preventing jobs from being lost through firms’ wandering eyes.
Since both companies employ over 2,000 (at Goodyear, Fayetteville and Bridgestone, Wilson) the necessity to secure the jobs in their current location is clear. However, the cash incentives have not been without their critics, who call attention to the fact that the companies are not required to create new jobs, but merely maintain those already in existence. Goodyear must retain 2,398 workers and invest 200 million US dollars by 2012 to receive the whole 30 million, while Bridgestone must invest the same by 2010, while retaining 2,083 staff members.
Just under a year after Chinese company Sentaida International bought US UHP tyre wholesale specialist Zisser Tire Wholesale, company representatives have told Tyres & Accessories that Sentaida is two-thirds of the way through constructing a new “state of the art” tyre manufacturing facility. The first phase of tyre production is scheduled to start in 2009 when the company will make between 2 and 3 million passenger car ultra high performance tyres. When construction is completed and production is fully ramped up (sometime around 2013) the factory is expected to output approximately 10 million units annually.
Goodyear doesn’t like Ike. The hurricane that struck the Texas, US coastline on September 13 has affected the company’s operations in the area, with operations at three of its petrochemical plants suspended. About 1,000 employees have been unable to perform their duties as a result.
On September 16 the announcement was made that Goodyear has entered into a research collaboration with Genencor, a division of Danish company Danisco A/S, to develop a bio-based process for producing isoprene using renewable raw materials.
Goodyear and Genencor are working on a product called BioIsoprene, a bio-based alternative for the petroleum-derived chemical compound isoprene. BioIsoprene can be used for the production of synthetic rubber and other elastomers. The development of BioIsoprene could, says Danisco, make the tyre and rubber industry less dependent on oil-derived products, such as synthetic rubber made from petroleum-derived isoprene monomer.
Shares in the world’s most profitable publicly traded tyre manufacturer (according to Bloomberg), Nokian Renkaat Oyj, have experienced a sharp decline alongside most Russian stocks following the descent of the ruble in recent days. The company currently enjoys a 30 per cent share of Russia’s premium replacement market, though overtures from Bridgestone and Pirelli – who have earmarked 250 million euros for a joint venture in the country with Russian Technologies – sound out a threat to the stability of that figure.
Mika Leskinen, a fund manager at Pohjola Asset Management of Helsinki stated that “competition is set to intensify” and that reasons for the stock’s fall included a massive 37 per cent rise throughout May and the recent Russian military intervention in Georgia. He suggests that analysts recommending the stock and raising earnings estimates had been a little “too optimistic”. Bloomberg’s straw pole of 15 banks however suggests that analysts are still happy to get behind the stock, with only London-based Merrill Lynch analysts suggesting their sale.
Dalian Bingshan Group is gearing up to sell its 25 per cent of Goodyear Dalian Tire to the public for 311.46 million yuan (25.47 million pounds sterling). The validity of the announcement will expire on 15 September, so find your chequebooks quickly, folks.
At present assets in Goodyear Dalian total 2.06 billion yuan (168 million GBP), though 813 million yuan (66 million GBP are current liabilities, while net assets sit at 1.25 billion yuan (102 million GBP).
John Cavanaugh has been named vice president of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s North American off-highway business. Cavanaugh will report to Richard Kramer, president of Goodyear’s North American Tire division. Goodyear’s off-highway business unit is responsible for tyres used in applications for aviation, racing, motorcycles and OTR vehicles such as those used in mining and earth moving.
Cavanaugh succeeds Joe Copeland, who was recently named vice president of Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems in North America. Since 2003, Cavanaugh has served various roles with Goodyear, including director of financial strategy, assistant treasurer, financial director of the off-highway business, director of racing operations and financial director of commercial tyre systems. (Tire Review/Akron)
Tuesday saw a significant drop in the price of Goodyear shares on the NYSE, leading analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets to drop their company rating from “Buy” to “Hold” and lower 2008 earnings estimates on the stock by 30 cents (to $1.90 per share). Afternoon trading resulted in Goodyear shares dropping $2.36 (12 per cent) to $18.05.
Veyance Technologies, exclusive producer of Goodyear Engineered Products, is expanding its conveyor belt installation, splice and repair service footprint into South America. The company has acquired, subject to regulatory approval, leading Brazilian conveyor belt service provider RCT Servicos de Vulcanizacao Ltda., based in Belo Horizonte, some 600 kilometres north of Sao Paulo.
This is the third conveyor belt service acquisition announced by Veyance this year, including North America’s Monk Mining Supply based in Virginia and National Belt Service based in Alabama that cover US and Canada coal industry needs.
When Bridgestone announced it had gained a contract with Swindon-based bus company Thamesdown Transport in July it marked a new stage in the Japanese manufacturer’s UK market development plans. Since then, the company has revealed that it has agreed three other strategic contracts (with Plymouth City Bus, Veolia and First Bus), designed to strengthen its position. The largest of these deals will see the company supply new Bridgestone tyres to 4000 buses. From an already strong position in the truck side of the roughly 1.4 million unit TBR market, Bridgestone is now aiming to position itself for growth in the bus side of the business too.
Speaking to Tyres & Acessories, Bridgestone UK commercial tyre director, Greg Ward, said that the manufacturer had been reviewing the market conditions for some time (about two years) before deciding 2008 was the right time to get involved with this market segment. What the company will have observed during this period is that there are many barriers to entering the part of the commercial vehicle market. And furthermore not many manufacturers are actually in a place to be able to successful serve this market in general. Asked why this was the right time to enter a marketplace that has and such a high entry point, Ward explained that Bridgestone and its partners now have the right “products, services and infrastructure,” to properly service this segment.
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