MTD recently caught up with several independent tire dealers to gauge their reaction to the recent announcement that Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plans to acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. 

Commenting on Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s pending acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Brad Hughes, Cooper's president and CEO, said that “when you look at the whole of it, in most cases, it’s going to offer more opportunities than risk." What’s the Goodyear brand’s current representation among the largest independent tire dealerships in the U.S.? And how many U.S.-based dealerships carry Cooper brand tires?

“The USW has been in contact with management at both companies and will ensure that union members' voices will be heard throughout the process,” a spokesperson from the United Steelworkers union told MTD in reference to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s pending acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will expand the Akron, Ohio-based tiremaker’s United States-based manufacturing footprint to seven plants and will add an extra 97,000 units of passenger and light truck tire manufacturing capacity to what Goodyear already enjoys.

What hasn’t changed in the last eight years? The sale price of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. With its second acquisition deal in a decade underway, the price stands at $2.5 billion.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. “makes sense for both” companies, Rich Kramer, Goodyear’s chairman, CEO and president, said today during a conference call with Cooper President and CEO Brad Hughes. Kramer and Hughes covered a wide range of topics, from brand integration to what the firms’ tire dealers can expect to see, wholesale distribution opportunities and more.

As a combined company, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. represent 200 million tires sold, annual revenues of $17.5 billion and a business that would be 80% focused on the replacement tire business.

"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.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., which will be acquired by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. later this year, posted full-year 2020 net income of $143 million, up from income of $96 million in 2019.