The exterior of Goodyear’s “Motor City Garage” concept retail store inside one of the tire manufacturer’s Detroit tire shops.
Courtesy Goodyear
DETROIT — Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. CEO Mark Stewart sits in the vehicle bay of a tire shop where the company is launching a new retail experience for customers.
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There’s a freshly painted black facade on the revamped Detroit store, with the words “Motor City” added in white flanking Goodyear’s winged foot logo. It’s been dressed up for a private event in connection to a nearby annual car festival called the Woodward Dream Cruise.
But despite the stylish touches, it’s still a tire shop. The smell of rubber and oil remains in the air and the sound of workers changing tires combines with music from a DJ inside the shop’s waiting room.
The scene is symbolic of Stewart’s ongoing “Goodyear Forward” turnaround plan. He’s trying to make tires — a historically dirty business — more attractive for investors and friendlier for consumers.
“We have made so much progress, and when you think about it from the standpoint of the Goodyear Forward program, it was really to get our feet back on the ground towards being the iconic company that we always were,” Stewart, wearing an unbuttoned navy blue Goodyear technician shirt, told CNBC during an interview at the shop.
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But while Goodyear is well known for burning rubber, it’s also burning cash as it restructures and tries to refinance and pay down years of debt.
Goodyear CEO Mark Stewart (right) being interviewed by CNBC reporter Michael Wayland on Aug. 14, 2026, inside a bay of one of the company’s retail locations in Detroit.
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The company’s capital expenditures were roughly $2 billion combined in 2024 and 2025, with expectations of $725 million this year. Its debt remained at more than $7 billion at the end of the second quarter.
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Goodyear’s net loss was $453 million through the first half of the year, while its operating income was $131 million, or a 1.6% margin.
Under the turnaround plan, Stewart wanted Goodyear to reach a 10% operating margin by the end of last year. Instead, that came in at 8.5% in the fourth quarter, and it’s still an outstanding goal for the company to hit that mark.
“We’re working on getting to that double-digit margin, and we’re working on meaningfully generating cash flow,” Stewart said. “It’s been a long time since Goodyear’s done that. That we absolutely must do.”
The automotive veteran was named CEO of Goodyear after leaving Chrysler parent Stellantis in January 2024. Since then, shares of the company have fallen more than 50% despite Goodyear achieving many of the milestones he’s set out to accomplish with the plan.
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Stewart doesn’t make excuses for not hitting the targets even though Goodyear’s business, like many, has been impacted by tariffs, inflated raw material costs and the expansion of cheaper Chinese products.
“We still have a lot of geopolitical headwinds that we’re working through … a lot of headwinds with raw material indexes and a bit of the hangover from the tariff environment,” he said, adding that overseas manufacturers continue to have cost advantages compared to Goodyear.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. stock
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Goodyear’s raw material costs are expected to be roughly flat year-over-year, but a $200 million headwind during the second half, largely due to higher commodity costs associated with the conflict in the Middle East, according to the company and Wall Street analysts.
“Goodyear has faced many big challenges over the past few years, ranging from slower consumer (and commercial) demand, to rising raw material costs, to higher capital expenditures (capex), to low-priced Asian imports (into the U.S.), and, more recently, to trade and tariff legislation. It hasn’t been easy for Goodyear,” Argus analyst Bill Selesky said in an Aug. 17 investor note.
Goodyear is rated a hold with a price target of $7.60, according to average analyst ratings compiled by FactSet. Shares of the company closed Friday at $6.35, down 27% this year.
Goodyear Forward rolls on
The Goodyear Forward turnaround strategy was initially expected to be a two-year plan that went through last year, but the CEO has continued it as he and his executive team map out what’s next for the 128-year-old Akron, Ohio-based company.
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“At the right time, we will announce that,” Stewart said. “We continue to press ahead to the next challenges and make sure we get the business in the right space.”
The Goodyear Forward plan had already been released when Stewart was named as incoming CEO, but he has been able to make it his own, including by adding cuts and cost savings. The turnaround plan has cut roughly $1.5 billion in annualized costs from the business, according to the company.
Racing tires displayed inside the factory floors of Goodyear’s headquarters in Akron, Ohio, on Feb. 27, 2025.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
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Part of the plan under Stewart has been to move Goodyear more into the premium tire segment, including by selling off units such as its Dunlop brand. It also plans to launch more than 1,600 new products this year, most of which are in higher-end segments with bigger margins.
The product restructuring comes as non-U.S. brands, especially Chinese ones such as Sumitomo and Yokohama, have been expanding globally with cheaper products in lower-end segments, according to Stewart.
Similar to how Chinese automakers have grown outside their own country, tire manufacturers have also been turning to more exports, including the U.S.
“We are not going to compete against a $6 or $10 converted tire. That’s not who we are as Goodyear,” Stewart said, referring to the manufacturing cost required to convert raw materials into a finished tire.
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Despite the challenges globally, Goodyear’s Asia-Pacific region is a bright spot for the company. Its segment operating income for the second quarter was $63 million, with an operating margin of 12.7%.
Its U.S. operations have been a main drag on the company’s financials. Stewart is trying to turn that around as consumer demand slows.
The company said its cash burn is expected to continue into 2027 but moderate as the announced closure next year of a plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is expected to improve its Americas segment operating income by $270 million annually.
“We had to take a very difficult decision, but a necessary one to announce the closure of our Fayetteville, North Carolina facility. We absolutely didn’t take that lightly, but we just didn’t have a pathway to be competitive out of that facility,” Stewart said.
The Goodyear Forward plan was prompted by activist investor Elliott Investment Management revealing a stake in the company in 2023. A spokesperson for Elliott, which supported three new Goodyear board members, declined to comment on the company or the firm’s current ownership status.
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Goodyear blimps flying high
Part of the Goodyear Forward strategy is to increase focus on marketing and advertising to connect with customers to reinforce the brand.
A large part of that — both physically and financially — comes from the company’s iconic Goodyear blimps that have flown as giant advertisements for more than a century.
A Goodyear blimp flies behind a historic sign for the company in Akron, Ohio.
Goodyear
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“The blimp team and the marketing team have really embraced it. So we do a lot of activation around the blimp to literally sell tires,” Stewart said. “When the blimp media marketing has their hat on, it’s always in context of ‘How do we tie this to the tires?’”
Stewart said Goodyear has leaned into the promotion, using social media platforms to tout its aircraft — and their connection to tires — and launching “buy to fly” campaigns in which tire retailers and consumers can win flights aboard its blimps.
The company was showing off its revamped store alongside a Detroit event that attracts hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts along a 16-mile stretch annually. To celebrate, and get its advertising in front of tire buyers, it held a rare double-blimp appearance, according to the company. It also featured a collection of smaller “mini blimps.”
“We’ve always made the tires worth bragging about,” Stewart said. “We’re just reminding people now, and that ties into our marketing and advertising as well.”
The Takeovers Panel has declared unacceptable circumstances around disclosures by Forrestania Resources, as part of its $93.5 million move to acquire Zenith Minerals.
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The Wearside firm described “relentlessly tough competition” in new accounts
Encore Group’s Washington site.(Image: Encore Group)
Bosses at print and packaging business Encore Group have described a “challenging but eventful year” in new accounts which show a dip in revenue and profits.
The maker of envelopes and packaging for the food, medical and wider retail sectors said it had managed to hang on to the majority of work despite “aggressive” competition and the inability to pass increased overheads on to customers. Newly published accounts for the Washington-based group, covering the year to November 30, 2025, also talk of substantial investment in the business, including the acquisition of a former rival based in the North West.
The documents reveal that deal in June 2025 has given 300-strong Encore bigger market share and strengthened its offer in the stationery envelopes space. Several of Blackburn-based Heritage’s production lines were added to Encore’s Wearside factory to boost capacity.
Further investment went into a 10,000 pallet bay automated warehouse system at the group’s Stephenson Road warehousing site in Peterlee. That location is being used as central hub for the firm’s stationery work.
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Encore’s packaging business managed to increase output volume and turnover in 2025, with sales increasing by 1% to £14.3m but overall, turnover fell from £51.2m to £47.2m as operation profit fell from £5.3m to £3.5m. Meanwhile, gross margin reported as a proportion of turnover fell by just under 2% to 23.5% as directors said the loss of margin “perfectly demonstrates the difficult market conditions, in which the group (and most likely all of our competitors) had to sacrifice some gross margin to retain work”.
The group hopes to become a net zero company by 2045 but says that aim has become more challenging with a perceived downgrading of environmental improvements in some parts of society. It said price is the overriding driver of contracts, with “very little” work award on environmental grounds.
Financial director Gary Joyce wrote in the accounts: “The financial year 2025 proved to be a challenging but eventful year for the Encore Group, during which the company faced relentlessly tough competition in both of its main markets. Once again, the group faced the usual aggressive pricing from competitors in both the envelopes and packaging markets that the company operates in.
“However, the company was able to compete to retain a large majority of the volume of work from the prior year. Turnover did contract though, by almost 8% year on year for the second year running. Similarly to 2024, the packaging business did manage to increase output volume and turnover in 2025, sales increasing by 1% to £14.3m.”
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Encore says it operates one of Europe’s most modern factories. Having been set up in 1983, the group now produces roughly 2.5bn envelopes a year and produces a range of packaging products for ecommerce, medical and healthcare, food and retail industry customers.
Encore said trading had continued to be challenging in recent months but that it had maintained strong order books for both envelopes and packaging. It said record levels of investment in the last five years had helped it achieve growth.
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LONDON — Queen Camilla has aligned herself firmly with the Princess of Wales rather than with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle following the couple’s return to Britain this week, according to a royal biographer whose account was reported by the Daily Mail and picked up by outlets across the royal-watching press.
Royal author Andrew Lownie said Camilla, who is described as being close to Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been pushing King Charles III to set firmer limits on his dealings with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. “The Queen, who is very close to Kate, has been stiffening the resolve of the King to establish clear boundaries for [Harry and Meghan],” Lownie said, according to the Daily Mail’s reporting. He added that there “remains a great deal of family dissension” over how Charles has handled what he called “the Sussex problem,” pointing also to lingering unhappiness within the family over the King’s handling of the fallout involving Prince Andrew.
Lownie’s comments came just days after Charles and Camilla hosted Harry and Meghan for tea at the King’s Gloucestershire residence, a meeting that had been read by some as a sign of warming relations within the family. But Lownie cautioned that any goodwill on display should not be mistaken for genuine reconciliation, saying Harry should not read the Queen’s composed public demeanor as forgiveness. He said Camilla has grown notably closer to Catherine in the years since Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020, a period commonly referred to as “Megxit,” while remaining guarded toward the King’s younger son and his wife.
The claims about Camilla’s alignment with Catherine are the latest in a string of similar reports from British and American royal commentators in recent months. Separate reporting from the celebrity magazine Globe, citing unnamed palace insiders, has similarly described tension between Camilla and Catherine over how to handle Harry, alleging that Camilla has expressed frustration that the Princess of Wales has quietly encouraged a path toward reconciliation between Charles and his younger son. Other tabloid reporting, including from the National Examiner, has made similar claims about strain between the two women, though such accounts, sourced to anonymous palace insiders, have not been independently verified and Buckingham Palace does not typically comment on this kind of reporting.
The broader narrative of tension between the royal women has also been shaped by claims in recently published books examining the family’s internal dynamics. Journalist and author Tom Bower, in his book “Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family,” has alleged that Camilla once told a friend that Meghan had “brainwashed” Harry, according to extracts published by The Times. That same book reportedly claims Prince William and Catherine came to view Meghan as “a threat” to the family in the period before the Sussexes’ departure from official duties.
Buckingham Palace has not issued a public response to Lownie’s specific claims regarding Camilla’s current stance, and neither the palace nor representatives for Harry and Meghan responded to requests for comment reported alongside the story. Royal commentators have noted that members of the family, including Charles, Camilla, William and Catherine, rarely confirm or deny this type of reporting directly, a longstanding practice within the institution meant to avoid escalating public disputes involving family members.
Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the wider royal family has remained strained since they stepped back from official royal duties in early 2020, a rift that widened further following the couple’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey and Harry’s 2023 memoir, “Spare,” both of which included pointed criticism of members of the family. Harry has continued to pursue a legal battle in the United Kingdom over the removal of his taxpayer-funded police protection following his departure from royal duties, a separate dispute that has run alongside the family’s more personal tensions.
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Despite the reported friction, this week’s tea meeting between Charles, Camilla, Harry and Meghan has been characterized by some royal watchers as evidence that at least a partial thaw may be underway between Harry and his father, even if broader reconciliation with the rest of the family remains uncertain. Commentators including Lownie have cautioned, however, that any warmth shown during the visit should be read cautiously rather than as a sign that the family’s underlying divisions have been resolved.
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