Goodyear To Close Shah Alam Plant This Year. 550 Jobs Are At Peril
Goodyear Malaysia will cease operations at their Shah Alam plant completely by the end of 2024.
Late last year, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced their “Goodyear Forward” transformation plan. It laid out a number of important decisions but the gist of it was a lot of cost cutting was in the pipeline. Now, we’re finally seeing how the “Goodyear Forward” plan will impact Malaysians.
Today, we received word that the company would be closing their manufacturing plant in Shah Alam effective 30 June 2024, with the closure expected to be complete by the end of the year. 550 positions associated with the factory will be affected
What happens to the 180 Goodyear AutoCare stores in Malaysia has not been disclosed as of yet.
It’s an extremely unfortunate decision from the 120+ year old American tyre manufacturer and one that was done purely for the good of the shareholders. Besides the plant closure, the company is also making other big decisions to improve their position and that includes divesting the Dunlop brand.
Goodyear In Malaysia
Goodyear has been selling tyres in Malaysia since 1929… before there even was a Malaysia. Their factory in Shah Alam was established in 1972 and became the company’s first tire plant with ISO 9002 certification in 1992.
Malaysia’s first national car, the Proton Saga, came shipped with Goodyear GT 70 tyres back in 1985.
In 2019, the factory was outfitted with loads of solar panels to lower its environmental impact.
In November of 2021, Goodyear Malaysia was questioned by American Homeland Security investigators for potential labour abuses following complaints filed by workers there.
Full text of announcement
Here’s the full text of the announcement published by Goodyear’s Asia Pacific President, Nathaniel Madarang:
As you know, Goodyear Forward is a transformation program designed to optimize our footprint and portfolio, deliver significant margin expansion and create shareholder value.
This program includes specific actions to deliver annualized cost reductions of $1.0 billion by 2025, ensuring we remain competitive and positioned as an industry leader.
As part of these efforts, Goodyear has made the difficult but necessary decision to close our manufacturing plant in Shah Alam, Malaysia, effective June 30, 2024, with closure expected to be complete by the end of the year.
As with any facility closure, there will be an associate impact, and in this case, approximately 550 positions in our Malaysia operations will be affected. We are committed to treating our associates with respect and transparency during this process.
These decisions are not made lightly, but we need to take them to advance the long-term interests of both our business and customers. Thank you for your continued focus on delivering results and for all you do to make Goodyear successful.
About the Author
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.
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