Our History 

Looking back, the founding of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in 1898 seems especially remarkable, for the beginning was anything but auspicious. The 38-year-old founder, Frank A. Seiberling, purchased the company’s first plant with a $3,500 down payment -- using money he borrowed from a brother-in-law Lucius C. Miles. The rubber and cotton that were the lifeblood of the industry had to be transported from halfway around the world, to a landlocked town that had only limited rail transportation. Even the man the company’s name memorialized, Charles Goodyear, had died penniless 30 years earlier despite his discovery of vulcanization after a long and courageous search.

Our Business

Our principal business is the development, manufacture, distribution and sale of tires and related products and services worldwide. We manufacture and market numerous lines of rubber tires for:

• automobiles
• trucks
• buses
• aviation
• motorcycles
• earthmoving and mining equipment
• industrial equipment, and
• various other applications

In each case, our tires are offered for sale to vehicle manufacturers for mounting as original equipment (“OE”) and for replacement worldwide. We manufacture and sell tires under the Goodyear, Dunlop, Kelly, Fulda, Debica and Sava brands and various other Goodyear owned “house” brands, and the private-label brands of certain customers.

In certain geographic areas we also:

• retread truck, aviation and off-the-road, or OTR, tires,
• manufacture and sell farm tires
• manufacture and sell tread rubber and other tire retreading materials,
• provide automotive repair services and miscellaneous other products and services, and
• manufacture and sell flaps for truck tires and other types of tires

Our principal products are new tires for most applications. Approximately 87.1% of our sales in 2008 were for new tires, which is consistent with 88.6% in both 2007 and 2006.