The new Managing Director at the Goodyear Technical Centre in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg (GTC*L) is Jean Bergh (59) after the retirement of Theo Famulok. Famulok has headed up the 900 technicians at Goodyear’s R & D centre since 1994. 900 technicians in Luxembourg develop car, truck and agricultural tyres for Europe as well as for the Asian and African markets.
After only one year, Dr. Paolo Masera (59), boss of Pirelli Germany, has left the company to take over responsibility for Pirelli in Brazil. His successor is Dr. Klaus Betka, up till now production chief. Betka should only be regarded as a short-term solution for two or three years, as it is said that he has already signed a contract for early retirement.
In the USA, Goodyear has offered an early retirement package to 700 white collar workers, around 8.5% of the white collar staff. Workers have until the middle of January to decide whether or not to accept the offer.
First came the second tyre recall with costs up to 3 bn $-US, secondly the “extended guarantee” due to problems with ignition systems, and thirdly many quality-related recalls of new car models, all of which have cost Ford a lot of its expected profit. Therefore the management has announced early retirement for up to 5000 white collar workers in the US. This is seen as the first step in a major restructuring in North America, where Ford has announced about 13 p.c. fewer new registrations compared with the same time last year, whereas the market in general shows only about 5p.c. fewer registrations of new cars. Analysts from Wall Street have already greeted Ford’s latest decision positively.
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