Tyre manufacturer Cooper Tire Rubber & Co. (Cooper) is to buy out a 42% stake in a joint venture with Corporacion de Occidente S.A. (COOCSA). Cooper and Cooperativa Trabajadores Democraticos de Occidente (TRADOC) set up the joint venture tyre manufacturing facility near Guadalajara, in western Mexico, back in 2008.
A majority of TRADOC members have agreed to sell their shares and, pending government approval and other customary closing conditions, it is expected that the transaction will close in early 2020; operations at the facility, which makes passenger car and light truck tyres, will continue as usual.A former Continental factory, it now has around 1,100 employees and is rated at 19,000 tyres/day.
Brad Hughes, Cooper Tire’s CEO and President, said that acquiring full ownership of COOCSA was vital“to optimise our global manufacturing footprint with cost-competitive production of quality tyres to meet market demand, throughout Latin America, as well as in North America.”
“We will continue to make investments to modernise the facility in the future as it produces millions of high-quality tyres,” Hughes said.