The Akron Beacon Journal reports that, “Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. says in a federal lawsuit that Sears Roebuck & Co. backed out of a deal to buy tyres specifically manufactured for the retail giant. In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Akron, Goodyear said it has 219,994 of the tyres in its inventory. Under a “co-branding” agreement, Goodyear said it manufactured tyres bearing its Fuel Max trademarks and the Sears WeatherHandler trademark.
Sears spokesman Howard Reif said in an email that the company does not comment on litigation. Goodyear said in a statement that it has supplied WeatherHandler tyres to Sears since 1993. “As it selected another tyre company in June 2014 as its future tyre supplier, Sears had already requested these tyres from Goodyear,” the tyre maker said in the statement. “Sears has since refused to pay for these co-branded (Goodyear WeatherHandler Fuel Max) tyres.”
The Akron-based tyre maker said in the lawsuit that on January 5, Sears submitted a forecast to Goodyear indicating that the retailer would buy more than 330,000 co-branded tyres over the next 12 months. During the next several months, Sears continued to submit rolling forecasts for a “large quantity” of tyres, Goodyear said in the suit. Then, in April, Sears put its tyre business out to bid, and in June told Goodyear it had selected another supplier. “Sears’ refusal to purchase the remaining inventory of co-branded tyres constitute a breach of the parties’ purchase agreement(s),” Goodyear said. The tyre maker said it is entitled to recover damages in excess of $18.9 million, plus interest.”