Cooper Tire And Rubber Co
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company'is a leading manufacturer of replacement tires
and original equipment automotive components. It is organized into two separate,
reportable, business segments, Cooper Tire and Cooper-Standard Automotive. Each
segment is managed separately because it offers different products to different
types of customers, which requires different marketing and distribution strategies.
Cooper Tire, the segment that comprises Cooper's tire and related businesses,
is the fourth largest tire manufacturer in North America and, according to a
recognized trade source, is the eighth largest tire company in the world based
on sales. The Tire segment focuses on the sale of passenger and light truck
replacement tires. It also manufactures radial medium truck tires and materials
and equipment for the truck tire retread industry. Cooper-Standard Automotive,
the segment that includes all of Cooper's automotive components business, is
one of the world's leaders in the design and manufacture of automotive body
sealing products and ranks among the top producers of noise, vibration and harshness
('NVH') control products and fluid handling systems for the automotive industry.
The Tire segment operates in a highly competitive industry, which includes
Bridgestone Corporation, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and Groupe Michelin.
These competitors are substantially larger than the Company and serve the OEM
as well as the replacement portion of the tire market. The segment also faces
competition from low-cost producers in Asia and South America. Some of those
producers are foreign subsidiaries of the segment's competitors in North America.
In the tread rubber industry, which supplies retread equipment and materials
to the commercial truck tire industry, there are numerous suppliers, of which
Bandag, Inc. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have a combined market share
that is believed to exceed 70'percent. The remaining significant competitors
include the retread business of the segment and the retread business of one
other major tire manufacturer.