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.
Eric Bequin, Manager of Advertising at Goodyear Luxembourg, will become the new Director of Advertising, Europe, from the 1st of May. He succeeds Rainer Keinath, who is leaving the company voluntarily.
A partnership has been formed in the US between Goodyear and Nevada-based Amerityre to manufacture polyurethane tyres, which Goodyear says could be on the market in three to four years. Amerityre already produces urethane tyres for bicycles, lawn and garden equipment and has produced four sets of prototypes, which it has fitted to pick-ups and other vehicles. CEO Richard Steinke says that the tyres have been driven for 2,000 miles with 30 holes in each tyre. Rick Vannan, Goodyear director of advance product and process technology, says that any product will require two years of internal testing and, if urethane replaced rubber completely, 10-15 years to convert factories.
Gerd Stubenvoll (39), who has worked for Dunlop for ten years in different positions in the mid-European sales companies, has been named as managing director of Pneumant, with special responsibility for sales. Jeffrey Smith (53) has been appointed production director in Fürstenwalde. His predecessor, Alexander Bleider (42) is now responsible for production at the Luxembourg plant. Dr. Rainer Schieben (38), MD of Pneumant until last autumn, has, for some months, been responsible for sales as sales and marketing director for associated brands at Goodyear’s European HQ in Brussels.
Goodyear’s Wolverhampton plant gets a new production director. Hugh Thompson brings 30 years’ experience in the rubber and plastics industry to the operation. Thompson was the vice president of manufacturing for Dunlop Tyres in North America. He replaces Serge Lussier, who has moved to Brussels to take up the post of director of manufacturing, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Goodyear has revised its earnings outlook for the third quarter of 2001, downwards, Net income per share is be similar to the second quarter’s 5 cents per diluted share. This compares to 11 cents per share for the third quarter 2000. Goodyear says that an already slowing demand had weakened further in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the USA.
Goodyear has appointed Nathaniel E. Leonard as global director of e-commerce. His previous post was as president of Weldersmall.com. In his new position, Leonard will lead Goodyear’s efforts to develop and implement e-commerce strategies, both global and individually-tailored for Goodyear’s strategic business units.
RubberNetwork.com, the electronic global purchasing marketplace set up by six tyre manufacturers, has taken a step forward. Transactions are due to begin in April and Bob Webster has been appointed as vice president of operations. A chief executive officer will be appointed at a later date. The organisation has also launched its own website.
Directors of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have declared a quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share. The dividend is payable September 17, to shareholders of record August 17. The payout represents an annual rate of $1.20 per share.
Union officials at Goodyear’s Wolverhampton truck tyre plant are seeking discussions with management over rumoured plans to cut a further 450 jobs. Transport and General Workers’ Union representative, Peter Booth said that they wished to impress upon Goodyear, the world-class quality of the workforce.
Agritechnica is the largest agricultural exhibition in Europe and the 2001 event was held in Hanover from 13th to 17th November. This year’s show area has increased by 4% to a total of 196,000 square metres and more than 1,300 exhibitors from 30 countries showed their goods and services. The exhibition showcases the latest advances in technology for modern agriculture, including tractors, other agricultural machinery, accessories and spare parts. Included in these are tyre manufacturers who offer agricultural tyres, with such famous names as Continental, Goodyear, Michelin, TWS and Vredestein, among others. Agritechnica usually proves a great draw for those involved in agriculture; this year with 247,000 visitors 9.5% more came through the doors than two years ago, 34,000 of these coming from 100 countries outside Germany, and similar levels were expected this time around. The November date for the show is well-timed, as this is the time of year when many farmers are planning their investments for the coming season.
The world-wide market for agricultural machines and tyres is has been characterised by a rationalisation processes over several years. The leading competitors in the tyre sector (Michelin-Group, Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS), Continental and Goodyear) have more or less completed repositioning themselves in the market. The widest multi-brand variation has been attained by the Michelin-Group, which covers with its four brands (Michelin, Kleber, Taurus and Stomil) all price-segments and applications. However, the development of this tyre segment cannot be viewed in isolation. It is influenced and defined by a number of fundamental and mutually connected parameters. These are: · the general economical development of the agricultural sector, · the changing structure of the German agricultural sector since reunification, · seasonal influences/aspects (e.g. weather conditions) and · sales, numbers and specifications of agricultural machines (especially tractors). In Germany fewer and fewer farming companies have concerns about a permanently increasing average area of land – a trend that can be observed throughout the rest of Europe. At the same time agricultural machinery is becoming more powerful, larger and faster, and the tyre manufacturer has to produce a product that can cope with these demands and yet remain gentle on crops to ensure maximum yield. In the first half of the year 2001 the already decreasing number of machinery sales found an additional seasonal reason in the sinking investments of the farmers, due to the BSE and the FMD-crisis. The increased cost-consciousness of the farmers became obvious in an trend towards cheaper brands. In the second half of the year the tyre market recovered a little bit from its bad results in the first six months but the overall negative figures could not be overcome completely so that ultimately a five percent loss was expected, compared to the previous year. This meant a total number of 220,000 tractor tyres sold in Germany (radial: 143,000 pieces).
According to Italian financial analysts Pirelli will use the US$ 2.15 bn received from the purchase by Cisco of their ‘Terrestrial Optical Networking Systems’ for investments in telecommunications and the Internet.
Six of the largest tyre manufacturers have announced their intention to develop a global e-business purchasing company. Rubbernetwork.com is an independent company which will host a global exchange, including Conti, Cooper, Goodyear, Michelin, Pirelli and Sumitomo Rubber. Confidentiality is assured and the exchange will be open to all manufacturers and suppliers. It will be operating by the year end. ‘Significant’ savings and efficiencies in purchasing are predicted.
After profit warnings from Goodyear, and from Michelin, the tyre industry is losing credit and trust at stock exchanges all over the world. Continental has now also been downgraded from “buy” to “Market perform”.
Goodyear reported a net loss for the third quarter of $6.6 million and a net income of $109.1 m (Q3 1999: $3.3 bn). High raw material and energy costs were contributory factors. World-wide Q3 sales were $3.5 bn and sales for the first nine months of the year were $10.5 bn (1999: $9.3 bn). Before these figures were revealed, analysts – following a statement towards the end of September by Samir Gibara, describing a “difficult outlook” for the tyre industry – had widely expected Goodyear to break even at best.
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