The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

They’re not revenue generating today, but the changes we’re seeing in mobility, the changes from just making a, if you will, a dumb tire to an intelligent tire, that actually has a place on an intelligent vehicle, a connected tire that improves the safety and performance of vehicles. And it actually has a role that becomes part of those vehicles operating systems, both in terms of how it’s integrated to the vehicle and the service element of it is something that gets us excited about where mobility is going and what the role of Goodyear and the tire is. That’s something that we’re — we’re thinking deeply about and I think we’re making great progress on going forward. So there’s a number of things that Darren will help us on as we go forward and do that.

But again, I would take a step back. It’s the basics and it’s the technological trends that the industry is going, our ability to execute on both of those simultaneously is going to continue what separates us going forward.

John Healy : Thank you. That’s super helpful. And just one other question I had just on distribution. It sounds like the Cooper and the Goodyear portfolios are starting to be maybe a little bit more connected in terms of dealer availability. We just love to get your thoughts in terms of access of super productive Goodyear dealers and vice versa. And are we at a point where maybe 1 plus 1 can start to equal 3? Or is it kind of going to continue to be somewhat separated in terms of how each go to market?

Richard Kramer: So I actually think it’s a little bit of both. And the reason I say that — for instance, our retail stores now have Cooper product in it, and that is and has turned into in terms of the performance of those stores sort of a 1 plus 1 equals 3 in terms of how they’re operating, how we’re taking care of customers and the products that we’re offering them. In the same respect, there are certain distribution elements of how Cooper goes to market, how they sell to distributors. And that process is one of the reasons that we wanted to combine Cooper with Goodyear. And they can do some of those things really well, and we are not going to touch those. We’re going to make sure what they did really well and candidly, what they were better at than we are.

We’re going to keep the best of that, and we are, while we’re integrating where it makes sense to do. So I think it’s actually a little bit of both. And I would tell you, both the terms of the synergies, we’re on the run rate synergies that we said we were going to get. And I think that the market side, we said we weren’t going to do anything rash right out of the box. We haven’t. And you’ll see continued progress on how Goodyear and Cooper equate into the market together in 2023. So I think more to come on that, but I’m very happy with where we are.

John Healy : Okay. Thank you.

Operator: And we’ll take our final question from James Picariello with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.