Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
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The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by German immigrants Charles and Frank Seiberling. Today it is the third largest tire and rubber company in the world behind Michelin and Bridgestone/Firestone. It manufactures tires for automobiles, airplanes, and heavy machinery. In addition it makes rubber hoses, shoe soles, and parts for electric printers.
Although the company was not connected with him, it was named in honor of Charles Goodyear. Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1839.
Goodyear is known throughout the world because of its famous Goodyear Blimps. For many years it maintained an aerospace subsidiary, first named Goodyear Aircraft Company and then after World War II renamed Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. The subsidiary was sold in 1987 to Loral Corp., in the aftermath of Sir James Goldsmith's greenmail attack.
The last major restructuring of the company took place in 1991. Goodyear hired Stanley Gault, former CFO of Rubbermaid inc, to expand the company into new markets. The moves resulted in 12,000 employees being laid off.
Timeline
- 1898 — Production begins in with 13 workers, manufacturing bicycle & carriage tires, rubber pads for horseshoes, & poker chips.
- 1901 — Seiberling offers racing tires to Henry Ford to help him get started in automobile racing.
- 1908 — Ford's Model T is outfitted with Goodyear tires.
- 1909 — builds its first aircraft tire.
- 1911 — constructs its first airship envelope.
- 1917 — produces airships & baloons for the U.S. military during World War I
- 1919 — tires on the winning car at the Indianapolis 500.
- 1922 — facing a growing economic depression Goodyear stops race tire production.
- 1926 — world's largest rubber company.
- 1935 — purchases competitor Kelly-Springfield Tire
- 1942 — awarded contract to make Corsair fighter planes for the US military.
- 1956 — Goodyear-operated U235 atomic processing plant opens in Ohio (USA)
- 1958 — attempting to counter a "stodgy" marketing image, Goodyear officially reenters racing.
- 1969 — annual sales top $3 billion USD as a result of significant expansions
- 1974 — annual sales reach $5 billion USD, now has facilities in 34 countries
- 1978 — announces that an idle Akron tire plant will be converted into a $75 million USD Technical Center to support research & tire design efforts
- 1979 — Goodyear Aerospace produces the MPP computer, a massively parallel supercomputer, for NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center
- 1982 — Goodyear' tires appear in the motion picture The Junkman with H.B. Halicki.
- 1984 — worldwide sales exceed 10 billion dollars
- 1986 — Sir James Goldsmith & investment group Hanson initiate a takeover attempt by purchasing 11 percent of outstanding Goodyear stock
- 1987 — in order to fend off the Goldsmith takeover & prevent other attempts, Goodyear completes a massive restructuring, selling subsidiaries and closing plants.
- 1987 — announces completion of a California to Texas "All American" oil pipeline.
- 1988 — announced plans to begin construction on a new state-of-the-art tire plant in Napanee, Ontario, Canada for a cost of $320 million.
- 1990 — sales top $11 billion USD.
- 1994 — opens an "electronic store" on the CompuServe network
- 2004 — launches Assurance Tire with "Triple Tred" technology for any weather conditions for cars
- 2005 — launches Wrangler & Fortera Tires with "Silent Armor" Technology & Kevlar
- 2005 — launchers Fortera Tires with "Triple Tred" technology for SUVs
Further reading
- Richard Korman. The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obsession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly (2002)
- Ronald P. Conlin; "Goodyear Advertising Research: Past, Present and Future" Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 34, 1994
Competitors
see also: List of Formula One records, for the nine tire manufacturer who had competitors in Formula One races
- BFGoodrich
- Bridgestone
- Continental Tire
- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (US company purchased Avon)
- Firestone
- Dunlop
- Michelin
- Pirelli
- Toyo Tire
- Uniroyal
- Yokohama Tire
External links
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