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.
(Akron/Tire Review) Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to “positive” after the tiremaker agreed to sell its engineered products business to Carlyle Group’s EPD Inc.
The rating agency also affirmed Goodyear’s “B+” long-term and “B-2” short-term corporate credit ratings.
Yesterday, Goodyear shares rose 4.9% and closed at $31.76 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will offer four college students a chance to win the company’s “Get There” prize by shooting a basketball at a hoop while flying 500 feet in the air aboard the Goodyear blimp.
The contest takes place Friday, Mar. 30 near Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, the site
of this year’s men’s division I college basketball tournament. The four students will represent each of the semifinalist schools – Florida, UCLA, Georgetown and Ohio State.
Any student who makes “the world’s longest basketball shot” will win Goodyear’s “Get There” prize package, which includes travel, accommodations and tickets for two for a sporting event during the next 12 months at which the Goodyear Blimp provides aerial coverage. If no student is successful, each will receive a second attempt, and Goodyear said a referee on the ground will signal a successful attempt.
The contest is being conducted to support Goodyear’s new advertising campaign, built on the “Get There” theme.
Shares in Goodyear India jumped almost 10 per cent from Rs 159.30 (£1.87) to Rs 175.20 (£2.06) on March 26. More than 40,000 shares were traded over the counter, treble the two-week average volume for Goodyear shares. This increase followed the announcement that the company would pay a dividend of Rs 5 (£0.06) a share for the year ended December 31, 2006.
Europa Tyres Ltd of Langport and Spalding in conjunction with Goodyear/Dunlop have reduced the selling price of Goodyear and Dunlop ATV tyres. The price cut covers the whole ranve from the 23×11.00-10 Dunlop KT869 that fits the Diesel Kawasaki Mule 2500/2510 or the more unusual 24×11-10 Goodyear wrangler sport fitted to the Polaris Xpress 300. “With our new Goodyear and Dunlop pricing structure we can now supply the trade with a quality product that is fitted original equipment to many Honda, John Deere, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Bombardier and Polaris quads to name a few at a competitive price,” company representatives said in an official statement. Europa carries a range of over 20 sizes in both Goodyear and Dunlop brands, and over 25 different patterns.
Following the news that Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co has sold its engineering products division to Carlyle group, Deutsche Bank analysts have reported that the sale would have been a good purchase for Contitech. It has been widely reported that Continental was interested in both Goodyear Engineering products and Siemens VDO.
Europa Tyres Ltd of Langport and Spalding in conjunction with Goodyear/Dunlop have reduced the selling price of Goodyear and Dunlop ATV tyres. The price cut covers the whole ranve from the 23×11.00-10 Dunlop KT869 that fits the Diesel Kawasaki Mule 2500/2510 or the more unusual 24×11-10 Goodyear wrangler sport fitted to the Polaris Xpress 300. “With our new Goodyear and Dunlop pricing structure we can now supply the trade with a quality product that is fitted original equipment to many Honda, John Deere, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Bombardier and Polaris quads to name a few at a competitive price,” company representatives said in an official statement. Europa carries a range of over 20 sizes in both Goodyear and Dunlop brands, and over 25 different patterns.
After much speculation about the fate of Goodyear’s Engineered Products Division and reports of strong interest from Germany’s Continental AG, news that the division is to be acquired by global private equity firm The Carlyle Group have come as a surprise to many. The company announced the signing of an agreement with Goodyear on March 23 and stated they would pay the tyremaker US$1.475 billion in cash for the Engineered Products Division. This sale price translates to a surprisingly high 9.3x 2006 EBITDA of $158 million, and is considerably higher than the conservative sale price of $750 million recently estimated by Deutsche Bank. The transaction is subject to the usual closing conditions, such as regulatory approvals and finalising a labour agreement with the United Steelworkers union.
The Engineered Products Division employs about 6,500 people worldwide at 32 manufacturing facilities, and annually generates approximately $1.5 billion in sales. Following the sale the division’s headquarters will remain in Akron, Ohio and current management, including president and CEO Timothy R. Toppen, will continue to lead the business.
Only days after its official launch, Goodyear Dunlop has released details of the new Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse’s recent success in German ADAC tests. ADAC, the German equivalent of the AA, awarded the FastResponse with the top “highly recommendable” grade in its 2007 summer tyre test. The ADAC testers said they were impressed most impressed with the tyre’s performance on both wet and dry roads.
(Akron/Tire Review) A FedEx truck driver from Perris, California, who saved two men trapped in a burning car, was named the 24th winner of Goodyear’s North America Highway Hero award. Edward Regener, who escaped one fire before jumping in to save the men, received the honour earlier this week at the Mid-America Trucking Show.
Regener, a 13-year veteran truck driver, was named the 2006 Highway Hero because of his courage and quick thinking on after a November 4, 2006 accident on I-10 near Phoenix.
The 43-year-old truck driver was headed east on I-10 when he said he saw a westbound car headed his way across the median. At the same time, a pickup truck carrying an engaged couple was attempting to pass Regener. The speeding car collided with the pickup, pushing it into Regener’s truck. The car, resting atop the guardrail, caught fire.
City driving, with its constant starting and stopping, places its own unique pressures upon a vehicle’s mechanicals, and also its tyres. With so many drivers undertaking most or all or their motoring in these conditions, it stands to reason that a demand exists for tyres specifically designed for city traffic. One such product is Goodyear’s DuraGrip, released in March 2007, a tyre its maker promotes as designed especially to cope with constant stopping and starting in heavy traffic conditions.
This city car tyre features a new silica compound that Goodyear claims improves mileage, strengthens the tyre’s wet performance and provides shorter braking distances. The tread pattern is asymmetrical with a closed outside design and two continuous outside ribs to maximise traction on dry surfaces. Wet weather handling is enhanced through the spaces created by the tread’s open design and circumferential grooves, both of which maximise contact area in situations when aquaplaning is a risk factor. To address the issue of lateral stability Goodyear have built stiff blocks into the DuraGrip’s outside shoulder.
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear is refinancing some of its credit lines with an eye to reducing interest expenses, the tyremaker announced yesterday.
To be refinanced are a $1.5 billion credit facility due on Apr. 30, 2010; a $1.2 billion term loan also due on Apr. 30, 2010; and a 505 million euro credit facility for its Goodyear Dunlop Tire Europe subsidiary also due on that date.
Goodyear said it is looking to extend or amend the credit facilities by two to four years, staggering their due dates from 2012 to 2014.
At the end of February Goodyear Dunlop released details of its campaign to “to protect UK customers from unknowingly buying tyres that were not designed for road conditions in this market.” As a result of this campaign, three companies have submitted to a high court injunction and have had to send 600 Dunlop tyres for recycling, to prevent these tyres from being used on UK roads. According to the company, this is the start of an initiative to remove unapproved tyres from the EU market.
The Goodyear Dunlop campaign targets all unauthorised imported tyres bearing the famous Dunlop and SP trademarks, but designed for their local markets, and not imported or recommended by the UK company. The company found that a number of these tyres originate from, and were designed for, Asian markets.
Apollo Tyres Ltd bought Dunlop Tyres International (Pty) Ltd (Dunlop South Africa) for US$62 million in January 2006.
As reported yesterday, Goodyear India has stated that a meeting of the company’s board of directors will be held on March 25 to review the annual financial results for the year ended December. 31, 2006, and to recommend the payment of dividend, if any.
As of March 21 Goodyear India shares were trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 143.65 (£1.68), down Rs 0.55 or 0.38 per cent.
Goodyear India has stated that a meeting of the company’s board of directors will be held on March 25 to review the annual financial results for the year ended December. 31, 2006, and it is reported that the board will recommend the payment of a dividend.
The company operates two manufacturing facilities in India, one of which, the Ballabhgarh plant near Delhi, has recently been the subject of a £4.7 million expansion program aimed at doubling farm tyre production to 700 units a day. The close proximity of the Ballabhgarh plant to the factories of three main tractor manufacturers – Eicher, Escorts and Punjab Tractors – was instrumental in the decision to expand the Goodyear facility.
As of March 21 Goodyear India shares were trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 143.65 (£1.68), down Rs 0.55 or 0.38 per cent.
(Akron/Tire Review) Tyre and rubber industry analysts expect Goodyear to sell off its engineered products unit within the next few weeks, according to media reports. Continental AG has repeatedly said it was interested in acquiring the business from Goodyear, but it is not known if the German tyre and automotive system maker is close to a deal.
The sale price, according to the reports, could exceed $1 billion.
Among its product portfolio, Goodyear’s engineered products unit produces automotive belts and hoses, and industrial conveyor belts.
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