Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. will acquire Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s OTR tire retread plant via its purchase of Goodyear's OTR tire business.
The detail was revealed by Goodyear in a July 25 SEC filing.
Goodyear's OTR tire retreading plant, which is the last known OTR tire retreading facility within the Akron, Ohio-based tiremaker's footprint, is located in North Bay, Ontario.
Goodyear sold its Wingfoot OTR tire retreading business, which included plants in North Carolina and Minnesota, to Potosi, Mo.-based Purcell Tire & Rubber Co. in 2009. (Purcell Tire switched from Goodyear's retreading system to Michelin Retread Technologies Inc.'s system several years ago.)
On July 22, Yokohama and Goodyear announced that Yokohama will acquire the latter company's OTR tire business unit for $905 million in cash.
In November 2023, Goodyear announced “portfolio optimization” plans to sell its OTR tire business, chemical business and Dunlop brand to generate “gross proceeds in excess of $2 billion.”
At the time, then-Goodyear Chairman, CEO and President Rich Kramer noted that Goodyear’s OTR tire competitors have much larger scale and that ramping up to a similar size would take “significant” investment.
Yokohama recently confirmed that Goodyear’s OTR tire division, which has around 500 employees, achieved total sales of $678 million in 2023.
Goodyear has OTR tire facilities in Topeka, Kan., plus Japan, Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and Columbia, according to Goodyear’s corporate website.
A Goodyear spokesperson told MTD that the Topeka plant, which opened in 1945, “will supply tires to Yokohama for an initial period of up to five years, post-closing.”
