A quick look at Goodyear's first quarter performance

On May 8, 2025, Goodyear's first quarter report was released. In the first quarter, Goodyear's tire sales fell by about 4.8% to 38.5 million sets, compared with 40.4 million sets in the same period last year. The decline in sales also dragged down Goodyear's first quarter revenue.

In the first three months of 2025, Goodyear's sales were US$4.253 billion (RMB 30.729 billion), down 6.3% from US$4.5 billion in the same period last year (RMB 32.4 billion at the exchange rate at that time).

In terms of operating profit, Goodyear fell 21.1% from the same period last year to US$195 million (RMB 1.409 billion), but after removing the off-road tire business that has been sold to Yokohama, its profit decline has narrowed to 17%.

However, driven by the "Goodyear Forward Plan", net profit turned from loss to profit. In the first quarter of 2024, Goodyear lost $57 million (410 million RMB at the exchange rate at that time), but in the first quarter of this year, Goodyear made a profit of $115 million (831 million RMB).

NO.1 Global sales decline

In the first quarter of 2025, Goodyear experienced a decline in sales in the three major markets. Sales in North America, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific were $2.502 billion (18.078 billion RMB), $1.277 billion (9.227 billion RMB) and $474 million (3.425 billion RMB), respectively, down $86 million, $70 million and $128 million from the same period last year.

But in terms of sales, the Asia-Pacific market did not save Goodyear's decline in the first quarter. However, in terms of profit, the Asia-Pacific region is still remarkable.

In the first quarter of 2025, the operating profits of North America, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific were $155 million (RMB 1.12 billion), $5 million (RMB 31.63 million) and $45 million (RMB 325 million), respectively.

Although they all declined, in the Asia-Pacific market, if the off-road tire business is not counted, the operating profit of the Asia-Pacific region increased by $2 million. Goodyear believes that low-priced tires in Asia are the biggest factor affecting its sales in the Americas and Europe. In the first quarter of 2025, imports of low-priced tires in the Americas increased by 10%.

In addition, like many foreign-funded tire companies, Goodyear has experienced a decline in supporting business. In the Americas, Goodyear's supporting business fell by 9%; in Europe, it fell by 10%; in the Asia-Pacific region, Goodyear's sales also fell.

However, in the replacement market, Goodyear's sales are recovering-in the first quarter of 2025, Goodyear's replacement business in the Americas ushered in a substantial increase, and in the European replacement market increased by 5%. In the Asia-Pacific region, sales fell 12.4% due to changes in product mix and weak supporting business, with 7.8 million tires sold in the first quarter.

From the perspective of influencing factors, Goodyear experienced greater cost operating pressure and sales pressure in the first quarter of this year.

These two factors put pressure on Goodyear's departmental operating profit by US$33 million (RMB 238 million) and US$181 million (RMB 1.308 billion), respectively. In the first quarter of 2025, the sales gap between Goodyear and Continental was only RMB 2.9 billion.

Many industry insiders believe that 2025 will be a critical year for Goodyear and Continental - will the top three global tire patterns change? Continental is sprinting all the way, and Goodyear is also using its transformation plan to consolidate its position.

NO.2 Goodyear's forward plan may bring 3.5 billion in revenue

The financial report shows that Goodyear will continue to promote its "Goodyear Forward" transformation plan in 2025, aiming to significantly increase profit margins and reduce leverage to drive shareholders to create a lot of value.

In 2024, driven by Goodyear's forward plan, its divisional operating income benefited by $480 million. Goodyear expects the plan to bring Goodyear $750 million in divisional revenue in 2025, of which $200 million has been achieved in the first quarter of 2025.

In early 2025, Goodyear completed the sale of its off-road tire business and the sale of the Dunlop brand, with total revenue of approximately $1.6 billion. However, for second-quarter sales, Goodyear believes that there will still be a 2% decline in sales.

Overall, sales expectations for the passenger car tire and truck and bus tire markets in 2025 are in the range of a 2% decrease to a 2% increase.