Goodyear says that trends in the global tyre industry play to its strengths and strategy to drive profitable growth.
"The accelerating shift to high-value-added tyres for both consumer vehicles and commercial trucks is the main product trend shaping the future of the tyre industry," Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Richard J. Kramer said at the company's annual shareholder meeting yesterday.
In the consumer tyre business, he said, this trend is best represented by the growth of tyres with rim diameters of 17 inches and larger. The market for this segment, he said, has doubled since 2010 and is expected to double again by 2020.
Goodyear's advantage over its competitors, Kramer said, is the company's connected business model, which integrates its consumer-facing strengths – such as OE relationships and powerful marketing relationships – with its aligned distribution network.
"Some tyre companies are strong in one or a few of these areas, but very few can manage all the elements of complexity within a connected business model like Goodyear," he said.
Other trends highlighted by Kramer were the complexity of supplying automakers due to the increasing variety of vehicle offerings and the changing expectations of technology-enabled consumers.
just-auto/QUBE forecasts of market volumes of tyres fitted to newly-assembled light vehicles show global OE volume at close to 400m a year by 2026.