UPDATED: Goodyear to close 'redundant' Cooper tire warehouses

AKRON — Goodyear plans to close a number of Cooper Tire & Rubber warehouse distribution centers in the Americas that it has deemed "redundant."

The plan, for which no timetable was disclosed, is in addition to a larger initiative related to the integration of Cooper Tire and which is aimed at reducing "duplicative global administrative headcount," Goodyear said in its second-quarter earnings release.

Goodyear said the plan overall will result in approximately 490 job reductions at company facilities globally and is in line with previously announced planned synergies, costs to achieve and cash-rationalization payment estimates.

The move to close warehouse locations is separate from the headcount reduction initiative, Goodyear said without disclosing specifics about the number of facilities it has targeted for closure or the financial impact of the moves.

As of mid-2021, Cooper operated six regional warehouses along with warehousing capacity at its three U.S. tire factories and two mixing warehouses. It's not known how many other warehouses it operates in other countries throughout the Americas.

Cooper opened a 1 million-sq.-ft. warehouse last May in Whiteland, Ind., that replaced a smaller facility in nearby Franklin, Ind.

In 2018, Cooper put into operation a 1 million-sq.-ft. warehouse in Byhalia, Tenn., that it said at the time complements its existing U.S. distribution network and "serves to enhance our logistics infrastructure."

More recently, Goodyear disclosed that it had begun offering Cooper- and Starfire-brand tires through its company-owned retail and commercial outlets as part of a plan to broaden the mix of products offered through those channel.

To effect that change, Goodyear's TireHub L.L.C. joint venture with Bridgestone Americas began stocking Cooper-brand products at its 70-plus warehouses across the country.