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Goodyear Gaining Market Share in Russia

In the past three years Goodyear has improved its position amongst the growing number of importers supplying tyres to the Russian market, not to mention the replacement market itself. In 2002 the American manufacturer exported some 960,000 Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda and Sava branded tyres to Russia. According to the Discovery Research Group based in Moscow, this has already grown to 1.39 million units. At the same time Goodyear’s share of the total number of tyres imported into Russia has increased from 12 per cent in 2002 to 17 per cent now, based on a total import market of 8.2 million units each year.

19th April 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear to shut UK tyre plant in cost-cut move

Career Tracks, Company News, International News, Product News, UK News

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on Wednesday said it plans to close an automobile tyre plant in the United Kingdom and a bicycle tyre plant in Poland (Debica) in order to achieve combined annual savings of up to $50 million. The largest U.S. tyre company, which is based in Akron, Ohio, said it has begun discussions with union employees as a step toward shutting its Goodyear Dunlop United Kingdom passenger tyre factory in Washington, northeast England. This action is expected to create annual savings of approximately $20 million and result in charges of between $75 million and $85 million ($55 million to $65 million after-tax). The cash portion of this charge is estimated to be $35 million to $40 million.

5th April 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Debica’s 4Q Net Profits Plummet 98 per cent

Debica SA’s net profits went into freefall in the fourth quarter of 2004, falling 98.14 per cent. According to a Dow Jones report, the company, 59.9 per cent of which is owned by Goodyear, recorded operating profits of 1.1 million euros in the period ended 31 December 2004. This compares with 8.1 million euros the same time the previous year (down 86.42 per cent). Net profits were hit the hardest falling 98.14 per cent from 8.3 million euros in the last quarter of 2004 to only 154,653 euros in 2004. Quarterly sales were the least affected, falling 4.76 per cent from 79.9 million euros in the final quarter 2003 to 76.9 million in 2004.

The end of year profit crash also impacted the total year figures. Although the company’s sales grew 8.54 per cent in 2004, from 360.9 million euros in 2003 to 332.5 million in 2004. Operation profit and net profits fell 4.49 per cent and 13.48 per cent respectively.

8th March 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Car tyre sales in Poland reach record

The total number of car tyres sold in Poland in the first nine months was a record 5.4 million, or eight per cent higher than the same period last year. Sales of tyres H-rated and above grew by 21 per cent, and off-road vehicle tyre sales were up 54 per cent. The biggest sector – budget tyres – saw sales rise two per cent and winter tyre sales were up 13 per cent. Analysts expect the figures to have positive effects on the share prices of the two tyre companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange; Stomil Olsztyn and Debica, which has a market share of over 50 per cent. Also, as exports account for the majority of their turnover, the two companies will benefit further from the strong Euro.

17th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Shell buys Kwik-Fit’s Polish service chain

Shell has bought the chain of 11 Kwik-Fit car service centres in Poland for an undisclosed sum. The workshops will operate under the Shell autoserv brand name – currently there are over 150 Shell autoserv centres operating in Australia, South Africa, Mexico and Singapore. The purchase of the Kwik-Fit centres marks Shell’s first steps into the Polish car servicing market; a market that the company says is worth $855 million and which is growing at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent. Graeme Robinson, MD of Shell autoserv in Poland, says that the company plans to have a network of 70 service centres operating in Poland by 2008.

9th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Region with potential for the Goodyear Group

Jarro F. Kaplan, a Goodyear employee since 1986, is already in his second year as President Eastern Europe and is responsible for the region that includes Eastern Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East as well as some other countries in Asia. Before that he was General Manager Deutsche Goodyear in Cologne for two years and earlier in his career he held General Manager positions in the UK and Turkey. The region he is now responsible for is – measured by turnover – relatively small, but is becoming increasingly important due to the fact that the group is running highly competitive factories in Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The income of the workers in those countries is not comparable with that of countries in Western Europe and will not become so for the next decade.

The biggest factory within the production network of the Goodyear Group in the whole of Europe is the Polish factory in Debica. The production is focused on passenger car tyres, mostly S/T rated. The Debica brand dominates, but many Fulda tyres are also produced there. And the Goodyear brand? “Not yet” says Kaplan. Debica has a production capacity of 40,000 tyres a day and there are already concrete plans drawn up to expand this. Plus it should not be forgotten that the Debica factory also produces some agricultural tyres as well as commercial tyres.

South Africa also belongs to Kaplan’s “Empire”. Goodyear has a big factory there and also its own equity with about 150 outlets, plus it is building and expanding a franchise-system.

Starting from South Africa, Goodyear is interested in doing more business in countries like Botswana, Sierra Leone, Kenya and some other countries. The company’s own equity in South Africa is doing a good job delivering tyres in the shortest possible time to customers. But it is absolutely clear that in the long run Goodyear must have its own people in those countries on which the company can rely; it can no longer leave everything in the hands of distributors. Kaplan: “You need to have your own people on the ground.”

Kaplan is travelling much more. For example to Dubai; from here Goodyear is defending its interests in countries like Israel as well as Palestine, in Iraq, Iran and so on. He travels to the north of Africa as well as to Pakistan. Pakistan belongs to his region. He who knows world politics can imagine that it might be impossible to bring India and Pakistan together under the one umbrella of Goodyear Asia.

To summarise: The Eastern Region is active in 95 different countries, with 52 different languages, which forces all managers to be sensitive and to respect the varied cultures.

9th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Strong Results From Stomil

Polish tyre maker Stomil Olsztyn, a member of the Michelin group, reported a fourfold increase in net profits for 2002. Shares in the company rose by 3.8 per cent to reach their highest level since 1997. This was in contrast to the overall stock market performance, which fell 1.3 per cent. Stomil’s performance also boosted the share price of Goodyear-owned Debica, which closed up 3.2 per cent at a four-year high.

7th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Fires 700 In Akron (Update)

Although reductions in staff had been expected, the news item still fell like a bombshell: Goodyear, the tyre manufacturer, is sending more than 700 salaried staff home, 350 of these from the company headquarters in Akron, Ohio, alone. The press releases on the subject refer to a "restructuring", holding that the move was necessary to strengthen attempts to accelerate Goodyear's turnaround. With this measure, it is said, Goodyear can remain competitive, and CEO Keegan even demands something like a "winners' attitude" from the remaining associates. This may go down well in America, yet to the ears of staff hit by the cuts, who have not been charged with having done anything wrong, it must sound almost cynical. Meanwhile, Thursday January 16th , Akron witnessed moving scenes among staff. For one thing, no one expected such serious staff cuts; and for another, it looked as if someone had simply gone through the ranks with a rake, plucking out staff members who never even dreamed of being dismissed. The entire proceeding bears a certain handwriting and leads one to suspect that top and higher-echelon management made the decisions more or less on their own, and that middle management, presumably was not involved in the matter and now lives in fear of a loss of functionality. In the end, the work to be done has neither gone away nor even lessened. Instead, it must be carried out by the employees still holding their positions.

20th January 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Kaplan Praises Sava Performance In Interview

In an interview with a Slovenian newspaper Jarro Kaplan, president of Goodyear’s Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East region, paid tribute to the part played by Sava Tire in Goodyear’s global business activities. Since Goodyear took an 80 per cent stake in Sava in 1998, the Slovenian company has grown in international importance, exporting more than 90 per cent of its production to 70 countries, with plans to enter the US market soon. Kaplan described the Sava workforce as “well educated, highly productive and internationally oriented.” A five-year investment program in Sava was completed a year ahead of schedule and, says Kaplan, Goodyear is seriously considering further production expansion. In addition to the Sava brand, the factory produces Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda and Debica brand tyres and is Goodyear’s only European factory to produce 17.5 inch truck tyres.

6th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Sava Introduces New High Performance Tyre Intensa

Slovenian tyre manufacturer Sava, since 1998 owned 60 per cent by Goodyear, presented their new high performance tyre “Intensa” for middle and upper class vehicles to the press and an international group of 360 retailers, from 21 nations, in Planica at the end of March. The directional tyre, which will replace its predecessor “Rapidex”, has been developed in co-operation with the Luxembourg R&D-department of Goodyear and will appear in 27 different sizes from 185/65 R 14 86H up to low profile dimension 235/40 ZR 17 90 W.The new tyre is made at a production plant that is regarded as one of the best and most powerful within the Goodyear organisation. In the past year the 1,400 employees manufactured seven million tyres – however just 57 per cent of these had the brand name Sava on their sidewall. The other 43 per cent were other group brands – Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Debica and, until the end of 2001, some sizes of Kelly. All these brands are produced in parallel at the plant located in Kranj. The turnover of Sava could be increased 13 per cent up to 210.7 million US-Dollar under the leadership of Richard A. Johnson, former European finance boss of Goodyear. This year Sava aims to reach a result of 7.3 million units and a turnover of more than 233 million US-Dollar. Today, it is almost exclusively passenger car and light truck tyres that are manufactured in the production facility. The production of truck tyres has been shifted towards other plants in Poland and Turkey in recent years. Further foreign markets for the brand, which is well known in Central and Eastern Europe, include Western Europe, but especially South America, Middle East and Asia. Further highlights in the event programme were the guided tour through the factory in Kranj as well as a visit to the World-Cup final in ski-flying which is traditionally held in Planica.

17th April 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Logistic Centre Opens In Poland For Debica

Jarro Kaplan, Goodyear’s President for Middle and Eastern Europe, Africa and the Near East, recently officially opened the new Debica logistic centre in Tarnow, Poland. The storage area is 30,000 square metres and the warehouse has 30 loading docks for trucks. 200 new jobs have been created and the investment is estimated at $12 million.

28th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Lay-Offs Next Year At Debica Factory

Press reports say that 800 workers at the tyre factory at Debica in Poland will be laid off by the end of 2001. This represents almost 19% of the total workforce of 4,218 and the move is part of restructuring plans. The Debica factory is controlled by Goodyear.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Tyre From Debica: Passio

Their latest product, the summer tyre Passio with a T-speed rating was presented to the European press and public at the end of January. This tyre is intended to succeed the Debica Vivo. For Zdzislaw Chabowski there is no doubt that in future his factory in Debica will be very important within Goodyear’s integrated production system all over the world. This article presents the new product, the company and the management. The product is a summer tyre, a so called bread and butter tyre, with speed index T, being developed in Goodyear’s research and development centre (GTCL) in Luxemburg. Afterwards it will be comprehensively tested on gravel roads, motorways and also on the race track in Vallelunga, Italy. According to the manufacturer, comfort and driving conditions on both wet and dry roads have been improved. Noise levels have been reduced, and compared to its predecessor, Passio should be able to reduce the braking distance on both dry and wet surfaces. Passio is a tyre for both the original equipment and the replacement market which soon will be available in nearly every European country. Debica Tyres was founded in 1939 and transformed into a public limited company in 1991, whose shares have been traded at the Warsaw stock exchange. The Polish government found a strategic investor in Goodyear at the end of 1995, who, in two steps, has increased its financial interest in the company and has become the majority shareholder meanwhile.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Kelly On The Way Out

In Europe the Kelly brand will be removed as part of a plan to reduce the number of Goodyear’s brands in Europe. Kelly’s removal is expected to be followed by other brands (Sava, Debica), with appeal only in Eastern Europe. The decision to scrap Kelly comes only seven months after the brand was comprehensively relaunched in the UK at Tyrexpo Europe.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Karl-Friedrich Schmidt Moves to Goodyear Group Headquarters

Karl-Friedrich Schmidt (59), previously Fulda manager with Europe-wide responsibility for Manufacturing Efficiency and Information Systems, took over as Director Global Manufacturing Efficiency of the Goodyear parent company with effect from 1st October. In this new function he reports directly to Goodyear’s world headquarters in Akron/Ohio, where he will also be based. “My principal aim is to raise the efficiency and profitability of all Goodyear production facilities worldwide”, said Schmidt. K.-F. Schmidt began his career with the group in 1983 when he joined Gummiwerke Fulda as Manager Industrial Engineering. In 1986 he moved to the personnel and welfare department with the rank of Deputy Managing Director. Four years later he became Manager Organization Effectiveness Europe for group divisions not directly product-related. He held his most recent position since 1993, during which time he was responsible for the integration of company acquisitions, among others Debica (Poland), Sava (Slovenia) and the repurchase of Goodyear South Africa.

7th December 1999/by Tyrepress Editors