A broadened remit for Christopher P. Helsel: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced he will succeed Jonathan Bellissimo as senior vice president, global operations following the latter’s retirement after a Goodyear career spanning four decades. Helsel will also continue as chief technology officer, a role he’s held for the past three years.
With the addition of a new DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator, the Goodyear Innovation Center in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg will gain greater tyre testing capabilities. The equipment supplied by VI-grade, a provider of real-time simulation software and driver-in-the-loop simulators, will also enhance technical collaboration between Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s European operation and its headquarters in Akron, USA, where another DiM250 recently entered operation.
In April 2019 the US Department of Defense awarded Goodyear a $38 million contract via its Defense Logisitics Agency. This three-year deal for the delivery of aircraft tyres is the most recent in a long supply relationship between the US tyre maker and the country’s military. This relationship continues, despite President Trump’s call for a boycott of Goodyear.
No nasty trick is off-limits in the run-up to the US presidential election. With his call to boycott Goodyear, President Trump has disavowed and repudiated the corporate culture nurtured by the tyre maker over decades. A culture distilled into a concise slogan, ‘Protect Our Good Name’. Non-subscribers can read the full text of this article here.
In order to prevent damage from ‘friendly fire’, Titan International Inc. has issued a statement distancing itself from the spat between US President Donald Trump and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Titan wants to make it clear that there is absolutely no link between it and the alleged Goodyear diversity training document that’s circulating on the internet.
Christina Zamarro has been appointed Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s vice president of Finance and treasurer. She succeeds Peter R. Rapin, who steps down from the role tomorrow ahead of his retirement on 1 October 2020. In her new role, Zamarro reports to Darren R. Wells, the tyre maker’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.
The phased approach that Goodyear is taking to restart its tyre production in the EMEA region continues. The company has already announced that truck tyre production is up and running again at some sites in Europe, with tyre making partially recommencing in plants in Colmar-Berg (Luxembourg), Wittlich (Germany), Kranj (Slovenia), Debica (Poland) and Izmit (Turkey) over the last two weeks. The next plants to return to production are Goodyear’s Hanau, Fulda, Fürstenwalde and Riesa plants in Germany and in Amiens, France – all five will begin working this week.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company intends to permanently end production at its Gadsden factory in Alabama, USA. The company says this closure comes as part of its strategy to “strengthen the competitiveness of its manufacturing footprint by curtailing production of tyres for declining, less profitable segments of the tyre market.”
Preliminary results for the first quarter of The Goodyear Tire Rubber Company’s 2020 financial year were published today, with the company confirming its fiscal performance during the three months to 31 March was “greatly affected by the economic disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.” Tyre unit volumes declined 18 per cent year-on-year to approximately 31 million units and sales dropped 16.7 per cent to around US$3.0 billion.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber says its road testing and customer field tests involving connected tyres recently surpassed the 3-million-mile mark with initial studies showing these connected tyres can reduce stopping distance lost between a new and worn tyre by 30 per cent.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber has responded to the coronavirus outbreak in China by temporarily closing its headquarters in Shanghai and the Goodyear Dalian Tire co. Ltd. manufacturing facility in Pulandian (Liaoning Province). Both facilities are expected to remain closed until at least Sunday.
Directors of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.16 per share of common stock. The dividend is payable 2 March 2020 to shareholders of record on 3 February 2020. The payout represents an annual rate of 64 cents per share.
As of 1 November, Andy Traicoff will take over as vice president consumer of Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Asia Pacific business unit. He moves to this role from his current jobs as vice president, customer experience of the company’s Americas business unit, a position he has held since October 2018. Traicoff will report to Ryan Patterson, president of Goodyear Asia Pacific.
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