Cooper to close tread rubber, race tyre plant in Georgia

Findlay, Ohio - Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will close its recently renovated race tyre and tread rubber plant in Athens, Georgia, in the coming two to three months and move the plant's production to other company facilities.

The firm said it decided to close the 56-year-old plant, which employs 140, because moving its production to other company plants represents a better use of assets.

Cooper estimates it will incur $11 million to $15 million in pre-tax costs, spread out over the remainder of fiscal 2006, to close the plant. It also invested $4.2 million in 2001 to cover the consolidation of tread rubber capacity from a Dallas plant that was being closed.

The company spent $11 million in 2004-05 to add race tyre capacity to the tread rubber plant. The initial production was slated to include street-legal Avon Tech R radials. The company also said it was planning to make competition motorcycle tyres there.

It acquired the plant in 1999 with its purchase of Oliver Rubber Co.

The Findlay-based tyre maker did not say where it plans to move the production. It operates tyre plants in Texarkana, Arkansas; Albany, Georgia; Tupelo, Mississippi; and Findlay, and a tread rubber plant in Asheboro, North Carolina. Cooper launched an initiative in 2004 to consolidate precure tread rubber production at that plant.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)