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.
Goodyear has unveiled a new partnership with Exclusive Wheel and Tyre Distributors in new go-to-market strategy for Goodyear’s South African truck tyre business. Goodyear South Africa managing director, Richard Fourie says the partnership “forms part of our drive to enhance service and efficiency to customers and underlines our commitment to the sustainable growth of the industry.”
Much has changed since 2005, the year the Tire Industry Project (TIP) was formed. To bring the TIP focus more in line with the zeitgeist and elevate its commitment to sustainability, the body has made changes to its organisational structure, including the addition of a fourth co-chair.
Goodyear has appointed Hamzeh Afaneh as director of its commercial tyre business in the Middle East & Africa (MEA). Afaneh has spent almost sixteen years in the tyre business, occupying a series of sales and business development roles based in Jordan and the UAE with Bridgestone, Continental and most recently Goodyear as commercial regional manager in early 2021. He led Goodyear’s team for the Gulf Cooperations Council (GCC) and near East regions, growing commercial tyre sales and delivering tailored digital solutions to customers. He was the recipient of Goodyear’s Chairman’s Award in 2022. Announcing his appointment, the company notes his experience of brand marketing, sales and business development across the region.
The news that Goodyear lost $104 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 won’t be welcome in the company’s Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The official figures also confirmed projections a fortnight earlier that EMEA’s own fourth-quarter 2022 loss of $80 million would make up the lion’s share of the red numbers. Back then, Goodyear’s Ohio-based global executives announced plans to cut 5 per cent of the firm’s global salaried workforce and official statements featured implicit references to the underperformance of the EMEA region, raising questions about how many jobs would be cut in Europe.
Goodyear reported net losses of $104 million (£85.81 million; 96.71 million euros) in its fourth-quarter 2022 results. By comparison, the same period of 2021 saw $553 million of income. Meanwhile, net sales grew six per cent to $5.374 billion in the period despite 3 per cent lower unit volumes compared with the same period in 2021.
In the absence of specific information regarding Goodyear’s plans to cut 5% of its salaried workforce worldwide, uncertainty exists as to where the axe will fall. But it appears Luxembourg has been spared the worst, with media firm RTL Luxembourg reporting that Goodyear has “no official plans” to make staff redundant there. But this doesn’t mean they’ll be entirely unaffected by the tyre maker’s belt-tightening.
Birmingham Motor Tyres Ltd (BMTR) is one of four Goodyear TruckForce partners to be awarded for the final quarter of 2022. It joins partners from Germany, Italy and Serbia who have “gone the extra mile” for customers and “demonstrated exceptional customer service.”
In what the companies are describing as an important step towards safer and more sustainable goods movement through autonomous transportation, Goodyear and Gatik have demonstrated, in a proof of concept, that intelligent tyres powered by Goodyear SightLine technology can accurately estimate tyre-road friction potential and provide real-time information to Gatik’s automated driving system (ADS). The breakthrough will add more utility to what a tyre can deliver by providing critical data that can help enhance vehicle safety and performance, increasing efficiency and value for Gatik’s customers in the B2B short-haul market.
Goodyear’s decision to cut 5 per cent of its global salaried employees is shocking enough for the firm’s 72,000-strong worldwide workforce. However, the fact that senior executives directly linked that decision to the company’s worse-than-expected performance in the EMEA region (Europe Middle East and Africa) is giving employees in those countries extra cause for concern.
In what may be a poorly timed coincidence the announcement of a notable reduction in Goodyear’s global workforce came just days after the union representing many employees in Germany confirmed demands for more money. On 25 January, union IG BCE shared details of upcoming negotiations on behalf of 25,000 rubber sector workers, naming Goodyear as one of the “large companies” it represents. The union’s income wishlist includes a cost of living pay rise and one-off inflation bonus.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is planning “rationalization and workforce reorganization” actions that would result in a 5 per cent reduction in salaried staff globally, or about 500 positions. According to executives, the move has been prompted by the “challenging industry environment and cost pressure driven by inflation.” However it is also attributed to weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results:
Mercedes-Benz has awarded Goodyear its ‘Preferred Partner of Tires’ status in Austria for a second consecutive time. The vehicle manufacturer performs a comprehensive evaluation of its partners every two years, and after granting Goodyear this distinction in 2021/22, it has confirmed its preferred status for 2023/24.
Goodyear tyres were the winning choice of 2023 Dakar Rally winner Team De Rooy, which took victory at the end of 16 challenging days of action across the Saudi Arabian desert. After almost 5,600 miles or 9000 kilometres of rock, sand and muddy terrain, with more than half of those as special stages, the Dutch team finished first, third and fourth with three of its Iveco trucks.
Players of the rFactor 2 motorsport simulation will benefit from a partnership between Studio 397 and Goodyear. The tyre maker is helping the Studio 397 physics team understand the very deep and complex construction and reactions of racing tyres. The Netherlands-based video game developer says it has benefitted from “an exceptional collaboration and sharing of data and insight of late.”
Goodyear is investing US$200 million (about 1.37 billion yuan, £170 million, 190 million euros) in its Cooper Kun Shan tyre factory. Following the latest investment, the total investment of the Cooper Kun Shan plant is expected to reach $500 million (about 3.42 billion yuan, £410 million, 470 million euros).
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