Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
| Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
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| legal form |
Corporation Public Company (USA) |
| ISIN | US3825501014 |
| founding | August 29, 1898 |
| Seat | Akron , United States |
| management | Richard J. Kramer (President and CEO) |
| Number of employees | 64,000 |
| sales | $ 15.4 billion |
| Branch | tires |
| Website | www.goodyear.eu |
| As of December 31, 2017 | |
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American tire company . It is the third largest tire manufacturer in the world.
Company history
Start in Ohio
In 1898, 38-year-old Frank Seiberling, one of nine children of an inventor and multiple patent holder, bought a disused factory in Akron , Ohio .
On August 29, 1898, his brother Charles joined the company. They decided to produce rubber and named their company after the discoverer of vulcanization and the founder of the modern rubber industry, the American inventor Charles Goodyear . The first products made by the 13 employees at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company included rubber products such as fire hoses, poker chips or horseshoe pads and tires for bicycles or carriages.
Priority with tires
At the beginning of the 20th century, automobiles became increasingly popular. In 1901 Goodyear produced the first car tires and fitted the young Henry Ford's racing car with tires . The soon more than 600 employees had to survive troubled business times, but innovations such as new universal rims or a tire manufacturing machine in 1904 allowed Goodyear to survive the difficulties.
In 1908 the famous Ford Model T was fitted with Goodyear tires; in Europe, Daimler vehicles were fitted with tires. From 1909 the company also manufactured aircraft tires.
In 1916 Goodyear became the largest tire manufacturer in the world - and defended this position until 1990. Also in 1916, the group began developing racing tires for motorsport. In 1919 all the winners of the most important automobile races in the USA drove with them. After a long hiatus, Goodyear resumed its commitment to racing in the 1950s and produced several hundred thousand tires for races in all motor sport classes around the world every year. Until 1998, the company was also a tire partner in Formula 1 for teams like Williams , Ferrari , Benetton and Jordan .
Large international company
The recession in the early 1920s also troubled Goodyear, and the Seiberling brothers had to leave their company for new leaders. As after the Great Depression of 1929, however, Goodyear recovered and in 1926 became the world's leading rubber producer.
The company soon focused on the global sales market. In 1910 the first manufacturing plant outside the USA, in Canada , was built, and from 1912 sales branches and factories were established in numerous European countries and in Australia , South Africa and South America .
In 1927 the company's first European tire factory opened in England . In the 1930s, the Seiberling brothers' tire and rubber factory had become a multinational corporation: in 1939, Goodyear owned seven factories and cotton and rubber plantations, 18 subsidiaries and 37 branches outside the United States, and 18,000 of the 46,000 employees were employed abroad. In 1957 there were 30 plants in 23 countries.
Expansion in Europe
The first step towards Europe was the establishment of an office in London in 1912. Today, business in the European Union and Eastern Europe is managed from Brussels .
In 1954 the Deutsche Goodyear GmbH was founded, which in 1961 bought the Gummiwerke Fulda . Five years later, the foundation stone was laid for the tire plant in Philippsburg . It became the largest plant outside of the United States.
The Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany GmbH represents all the Group's activities in Germany. This includes the management of the company's strategic orientation as well as group-wide tasks in the areas of production, logistics, finance, marketing, research and development, including human resources. With Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda , Sava , Debica and Pneumant , he has six well-known brands as a tire manufacturer. The DG Trade GmbH controls all trade activities with related services. The group's original equipment business is in the hands of Goodyear Dunlop Tires OE GmbH .
In 1957, the Goodyear Company established a "Goodyear Technical Center" in Colmar-Berg to develop tires that meet the needs of Europe and Asia. A 180 hectare test site that can be used all year round is located in Mireval in the Hérault department .
In addition to plants in Luxembourg , Goodyear also has production facilities in Germany, France , England , Poland and Slovenia , where, in addition to tires, cord is also produced for steel belt tires , fabrics, drive belts and air bags. Aircraft tires can be retreaded.
Other business areas
The company not only manufactured tires: The Goodyear Blimps are also world-famous , with the majority of the airships produced before and after the Second World War as military airships for the US Navy. In the meantime, however, two (of three planned) of the newest rigid airships in the fleet have been built by Zeppelin Neue Technologie ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik in Friedrichshafen. Goodyear was instrumental in developing synthetic rubber. During the Second World War , the company produced aircraft. In 1969 and 1971 products were supplied for the Apollo moon missions (brakes, floating cushions, tires for a transport vehicle). Goodyear is further expanding its portfolio and is launching its own luggage and bag line for 2016. The collection should be characterized by durability as well as comfort and functionality.
ups and downs
In 1976, Goodyear became the market leader in radial tires , which had become increasingly popular in the 1970s. In the 1980s, globalization in the tire industry increased, with Goodyear's main competitors being Michelin and Bridgestone .
In 1986 the company got into trouble when British billionaire James Goldsmith planned a hostile takeover. This could be prevented after a long struggle, but Goodyear was forced to restructure and had to part with individual business areas such as the aerospace division.
In the 1990s, the company experienced a boom again. Since then, the group has continued to expand, for example to Eastern Europe and in 1993 to China. Goodyear has over 90 plants in 27 countries and employs approximately 67,000 people. Golf and tennis balls, shoes, paints and toys are also produced worldwide in various product lines - in addition to the obligatory tires, run- flat tires (EMT) or all-season tires .
Since 1999, the brand was Dunlop part of a global joint venture of the companies Sumitomo Rubber Industries and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The joint venture was dissolved at the end of 2015. The worldwide trademark rights were divided according to the agreement, in Europe excluding Russia, Australia and New Zealand the brand goes completely to Goodyear, in North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Goodyear holds the Dunlop brand for the free tire market and for original equipment of new vehicles, except for Japanese makes. Sumitomo holds the rights here, also in general for motorcycle tires. Sumitomo holds the rights to the Dunlop tire brand in all of Latin America except Mexico, in all of Asia except India and in all of Africa. The Indian Ruia Group holds the trademark rights in India.
In mid-August 2020, American President Donald Trump called for a boycott of Goodyear:
Don't buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
Board members
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| Robert E. Mercer | 1982-1988 |
| Tom H. Barrett | 1989-1991 |
| Stanley Gault | 1991-1996 |
| Samir Gibara | 1996-2003 |
| Robert J. Keegan | 2003-2010 |
| Richard J. Kramer | 2010– |
Web links
- goodyear.eu - Official German website of Goodyear
literature
- Cordelia Becker: From rubber tears to high-performance tires, 100 years of Goodyear ( Memento from July 30, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), VDI-Nachrichten, October 15, 1999
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Form 10-K Report 2017 , accessed on May 27, 2018
- ^ Goodyear Dunlop - a strong company. ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Goodyear Europe. read March 6, 2010.
- ↑ Ralf Decker: Bags and Luggage for Summer 2016 .
- ↑ Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries Finalize Global Divorce , June 4th, 2015
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://secure.goodyear.com/corporate/bios/gibara.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
