Firestone Corporation
The Tire Industry is a part of the Rubber and Plastics Industry, which is also a part of the Manufacturing sector. The present tire business is described as a "global" industry in which a few multinational enterprises increasingly dominate the world market. This is due to the newfound competitive pressures in the domestic markets pushing businesses to operate on a broader market. Because of Henry Ford and other car makers that made it possible for people to have the ability to drive their own car, rapid growth occurred for car parts. The rapid growth provided a new market for tires especially when new roads were being built and cities were expanding. Ultimately, there was a major birth of tire necessity for all carmakers and automobile suppliers. In order for the tire makers to comply with the new demand for their product, there was also the need for more raw materials. There are many kinds of raw materials that are used to make a tire that include pigments, chemicals, 30 different types of rubber, cord fabrics and oil. Besides the need for more materials, there was also the need to use the materials most efficiently. The main concern of the tire business was to be able to put a tire on everyone's car and
Dividends yield is found by dividing dividends per share by market price per share. Goodyear has a yield of .95%. The dividends yield measures the current return to an investor in the form of dividends. Goodyear is producing very little current return to the investor. The tire industry is now operating at its all time high in quantity but also it is struggling to produce the quality needed. The industry is racking in the income but suffering with quality especially this year. Since the beginning weeks of August, claims began to surface and grow against Bridgestone/Firestone Corporation about a certain tire, which was mainly produced for the Ford Explorer. The claims brought against Bridgestone reported these certain ATX, ATXII, and Wilderness AT tires were faulty due to tread separation. This caused a domino effect of people reporting the same occurrences and was settled by Bridgestone issuing a widespread recall of the 6.5 million tires in those models. Each news article concerning the tire industry and its companies mainly introduced newfound speculations and how the industry was operating according to these speculations. The tire industry faces a lot of turmoil now with the NHTSA and car-makers as it was once asked to respond vigorously to its buyers demand. The industry is an 80 million dollar market that should be well up to the task of improving quality but it is also one that relies on the judgments of its sister companies and their employees. In each of these three companies, there are poor choices made by factories. For Bridgestone it is the one major tire manufacturer in Tennessee; for Cooper it is factories in Michigan, North Carolina, and the rubber plant in Dallas, Texas; and for Goodyear it is an accumulation of a tire made over three years. The stock charts for each company are pretty much uniform. The charts show a steady decrease in the stock value. The value should be increasing as in gets closer to the winter months where people buy new winter tires. . The charts show a big dip with no recovery occuring. Cash flow yield is found by dividing net cash flows from operating activities by net income. Goodyear's cash flow yield is 1.17 times. Goodyear is operating well at because operating activities are generating about 60% more cash flow than net income. Goodyear, who leads its competitors as the world's largest tire supplier, is also being investigated by the NHTSA for faulty tire models stimulated by the increasing claims of consumers. There were 37 complaints of "sudden and catastrophic tire failure while driving." The NHTSA opened the investigation into 21 million tires linked to 15 deaths and 129 injuries under the Load Range E model tire. These tires, like the Firestone tires, are made for light trucks and SUVs and have the same faulty tread designs. Goodyear has reviewed the complaints and has found the answer attributed to an outside factor like overloaded vehicles, under inflated tires, or punctured or damaged tires. Goodyear has had a long history of continuous product improvement and has already responded in 1996 by assigning several teams of engineers called the Tread Throw Team to improving the tire. Goodyear claims that the tires are not defective by their investigation and will not recall the tire. Goodyear's dividend history starts with the year 1996 where a net after-taxcharge of $573.0 million or $3.65 per share for the writedown of the All American Pipeline System and related assets and other rationalizations. The year 1997 included an after-tax charge of $176.3 million or $1.12 per share for rationalizations. The year 1998 included a net after-tax gain totaling $61.3 million or $.38 per share from rationalizations, the sale of the Oil Transportation business segment and other asset sales. The year 1999 included a net after-tax benefit of $22.3 million or $.13 per share for rationalization and asset sales. The ending date of the latest fiscal yea
Some common words found in the essay are:
Adequacy Cash, Lastly Cooper, Europe Bridgestone, Henry Ford, Goodyear Goodyear's, Kelly Fulda, COB CEO, ATXII Wilderness, Profitability Profit, Goodyear P/E, found dividing, cash flow, found dividing net, dividing net, net income, net sales, net cash, cash flows, operating activities, cooper tire, net cash flows, average total assets, flows operating activities, tire industry, cash flows operating,
Approximate Word count = 2987
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
|