From 1900’s till 1970’s there were 5 big players in U.S tire industry.These companies were Goodyear,Firestone,Uniroyal,BF Goodrich and General Tire.After 1970’s 3 important changes happened.First radial tired replaced bias tires.These tires would last for 40.000 miles while their old counterparts stood at 20.000.Second foreign competition started to enter U.S, companies like Micheln and Continantal with radial tire expertsise.Lastly the nature of deman has changed..Oil prices has increased and this led to reduced demand of tires replacement because people werent using cars like they used to after oil crisis in 1970’s and also long lasting radial tires meant less frequent tire purchases.
There were 4 outcomes due to these changes;
1)Demand for tires grew slowly
2) Pricce of tired declined %25 between 1980-1990
3)Tire producing capacit outsripped demand
4) Difficult economic conditions mentioned above caused merges and acqusitions.Uniroyal and Goodrich merger in 1986 later bought by Michelin in 1990.In 1987 General Tires sold to Continental (Germany).
By 1991 Goodyear was the only american manufactorer that had not been acquired and managed to stay as a major player.The reasons for this were; First of all Good year made large investments (over 1.5bil usd) during late 70’s to convert their factories to produce radial tires.Secondly the company had also strong track record in launching innovative products.In 1977 Goodyear released ‘’Tiempo’’ first all season radial tire and later in 1981 they launced ‘’Eagle’’ first radial tire offering high speed for sports cars.
In 1980’s