Farm and OTR tire and wheel maker Titan International Inc. has agreed to buy certain farm tire-related assets in Europe from Goodyear, including the Goodyear Dunlop Tires France factory in Amiens, France.
Terms of the deal, which Titan described as “non-binding,” were not disclosed.
Titan said the acquisition is subject to the satisfactory completion by Goodyear Dunlop of a social plan at the Amiens plant related to consumer tire activity, along with completion of due diligence, a definitive acquisition agreement and other standard acquisition approval requirements.
“Titan maintains its focus and specialty in the farm and off-the-road wheel and tire business,” said Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor Jr. “We hope (Goodyear Dunlop) can come to an expedient arrangement with the Central Works Council in France. If this can be done, the process will move forward.”
Goodyear notified workers at the 49-year-old Amiens plant in May it intends to stop producing passenger and light truck tires by late 2010 there. The negotiations with the works council are related to that move, which would eliminate more than 800 jobs at the factory.
If completed, the deal would give Titan its first tire manufacturing capacity in Europe.
Akron-based Goodyear has been exploring the sale of its farm tire businesses in Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa since May. At the time, it termed sales of the units “not material” to its overall revenues.
The company sold its North American farm tire operation—including a factory in Freeport, Ill.—in 2005 to Titan, which continues to sell Goodyear-brand farm tires in North America.
Goodyear declined to comment on other aspects of the deal, including the status of farm tire capacity in Europe. It still has at plants in Montlucons, France, Debica, Poland, and Adapazari and Izmit, Turkey.
A second Goodyear tire plant in Amiens, making passenger tires only, would not be impacted by this action. That facility employs about 1,000, Goodyear said.
Goodyear opened the farm tire plant in 1949 and acquired the second plant in 1999 with its purchase of Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd.'s Dunlop Tire-related assets in Europe and North America.
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