"Cooper gives Goodyear a stronger brand in the middle of the market," says John Healy, managing director and research analyst with Northcoast Research Holdings LLC., which specifically follows both Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. The two companies have announced that Goodyear plans to acquire Cooper during the second half of 2021.

As an analyst at Northcoast Research Holdings LLC, John Healy has a bird’s-eye view of the domestic tire industry. Healy, who also writes MTD’s monthly Your Marketplace column, calls 2020 “the most unpredictable and at the same time, the most surprising” year in recent memory. In this MTD exclusive, Healy explains why - and looks ahead to what 2021 will bring.

Following recent trends, our latest conversations with dealers leave us with a view that retail sell-out trends are continuing to trend downward, showing decreases on a sequential basis since this past October.