The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced that it has set up first development centre in China.
Located at the company’s state-of-the-art tyre manufacturing facility at Pulandian in China, the new centre expands Goodyear’s capabilities in the Asia Pacific region and will enable it to increase the speed and efficiency of high-value-added tyre development, especially for China-based automakers.
“China is the world’s largest and fastest-growing market for passenger cars and commercial trucks, and critical to Goodyear’s growth strategy,” said Richard J Kramer, the company’s chairman and CEO. “The new China development centre will be an integral part of our network of global innovation centres and strengthen our innovation leadership role in the global tire industry.”
Locating the Chinese centre in Pulandian will support Goodyear’s market-back innovation approach providing direct interactions between customers and designers, and the building of local capabilities. It will also allow the company to enter new original equipment platforms in China, including new energy vehicles.
“The time is right for us to increase our capabilities in China to ensure we remain first with our customers,” said Kramer. “We have built strong relationships with original equipment manufacturers and our investment in this new development centre will allow us to expand our new product offerings, accelerate our speed to market and increase the value we deliver to these key customers.”
Core tyre technology will continue to be developed in Goodyear’s global Innovation Centres in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, with China development activities focused on product customization for original equipment fitments and project support services.
In addition to the two global innovation centres, Goodyear also operates development centres in Hanau, Germany and Hebron, Ohio.
Goodyear is one of the world’s largest tyre companies. It employs about 67,000 people and manufactures its products in 50 facilities in 22 countries around the world.
