Although its revenues remained at roughly the same level as a year earlier, Cooper Tire & Rubber experienced a 46.2 per cent year-on-year drop in operating profit during the first quarter of 2017. The largest contributor to this unfavourable result was raw material costs which, net of price and mix, removed $42 million from the result.
For the sixth consecutive year, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company will sponsor professional baseball teams across the USA. The 2017 season will include sponsorship of ten teams – the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals.
It narrowly missed taking first place in the ADAC’s test of 15 size 215/65 R16 98H tyres, but the Cooper Zeon 4XS Sport nevertheless received the same ‘good’ rating as the victor – the only tyre to do so. Austrian partner association the ÖAMTC and Switzerland’s TCS gave the Cooper tyre a rating of ‘highly recommended’ in their versions of the test, and Cooper Tire Europe has expressed its pleasure in the motoring organisations’ positive evaluation.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has announced it will pay a quarterly dividend of US 10.5 cents per share on common stock. The dividend will be payable 31 March 2017 to stockholders of record at the close of business 2 March 2017. This will mark the 180th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by Cooper Tire & Rubber Company.
A tyre warehouse and distribution facility leased by Cooper Tire & Rubber in the USA sustained damage during a tornado just over a week ago, and as a result is currently out of operation. The site in Albany, Georgia was damaged on 22 January, and customer orders are being rerouted to other facilities.
The Board of Directors of Max-Trac Tire Co. Inc. has elected Dominick Wycoff president of Mickey Thompson Tires & Wheels. Wycoff began in this role on 1 January and succeeds Chris Barbara. He previously held the position of vice-president of business development for Mickey Thompson Tires & Wheels, a role he took on in August 2014.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has reported a third quarter 2016 net income of US$49 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.90, compared with $53 million, or $0.93 per share, during the same period of last year. The quarter included a non-cash pension settlement charge of $11.5 million related to lump-sum distribution of benefits offered to certain former employees. Excluding the non-cash pension settlement charge, diluted earnings per share for the third quarter would have been $1.04.
On 1 October, Luis Ceneviz will succeed Jeff Schumaker as managing director – Europe tyre operations at Cooper Tire & Rubber. Ceneviz will hold this position in addition to his current role as managing director – Latin America tyre operations and will increase his area of responsibility to cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa in addition to Latin America, including Mexico and Central and South America. Jeff Schumaker, who has been based in the UK since his appointment as managing director – Europe tyre operations in January 2013, will assume the position of vice-president, global manufacturing.
Scientists working on Cooper Tire & Rubber’s guayule rubber project have reportedly reached a key milestone on the path to producing, by mid-2017, a concept tyre in which guayule-based polymers replace all natural and synthetic rubbers. Their testing has shown guayule to be an effective substitute material in certain components, with tyres produced using these components offering comparative performance to their conventional counterparts.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has reported second quarter 2016 net income of US$71 million, an 18.3 per cent year-on-year increase on the net income achieved a year ago. Commenting on the tyre maker’s Q2 2016 result, chairman, chief executive officer and president Roy Armes noted that “Cooper closed the first half of 2016 with another outstanding quarter.”
At the start of the year, Cooper Tire & Rubber confirmed its intention to acquire a majority interest in Chinese truck and bus radial manufacturer Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd (GRT); the plan is to initially purchase a 51.86 per cent equity interest in the joint venture company from Qingdao Yiyuan Investment Co., Ltd., with Cooper Tire Holding Company obtaining a further 4.32 per cent; the registered capital in GRT will then be increased from RMB 350,000,000 to RMB 438,236,991, the result being that Cooper Tire & Rubber’s share will rise to 60 per cent share and Cooper Tire Holding Company’s to five per cent.
Bryan Hesse has joined Cooper Tire & Rubber as vice-president of marketing for North America Tire Operations. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of Cooper’s marketing programmes in the United States and Canada, including branding, product management, pricing, and programs supporting Cooper’s network of distribution partners.
Roy V. Armes, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Cooper Tire & Rubber, has announced his intention to retire on 31 August 2016. According to the company’s succession plan, the Cooper Board of Directors will appoint incumbent chief operating officer Bradley E. Hughes to the roles of president and chief executive officer effective upon Armes’ retirement, and Hughes is also expected to join the Board of Directors at that time. Thomas P. Capo, who is now lead independent director, is expected to become the Board’s non-executive chairman upon Armes’ retirement.
The Board of Directors of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has named Susan F. Davis a director of the company, effective immediately. Commenting on her appointment, company chairman, CEO and president Roy Armes said Davis’s “specific global expertise” will be “of tremendous value as we continue to pursue Cooper’s strategic plans for worldwide growth.”
It’s now over a year since Cooper Tire & Rubber completed the sale of its share in the Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd joint venture. At the time, company chairman, chief executive and president Roy Armes mentioned that Cooper would “identify and develop alternative sources” for the tyres produced at the Cooper Chengshan plant; he identified a further joint venture as one potential option. The tyre maker reports it has realised this alternative source and has entered into an agreement to purchase a majority of China-based Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd (GRT).
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