Mississippi Tire Plant to Restart After Tornado Damage

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) – A northeast Mississippi tire plant that was damaged by an April tornado is expected to restart production in June.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said this week that it was likely to take several months for its Cooper Tire plant in Tupelo to resume full production after the restart.

The Akron, Ohio, company said in a filing to investors that sales are likely to fall $110 million to $130 million in the second quarter because of the Tupelo plant’s shutdown and restart. The operating income will likely fall $60 million to $80 million in the same April-to-June period. That’s in part because Cooper has continued to pay its 1,700 workers since the shutdown.

The company said that insurance will repay at least some of the property damage and lost business after Goodyear pays the first $15 million in losses. Goodyear said a “significant portion” of the lost business would be repaid by insurance, but payments aren’t reflected in its projections of lost sales and income.

Goodyear told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on Friday that it continues “around-the-clock remediation efforts” following the April 1 tornado. Large sections of roofing atop the plant sustained heavy damage during the storm that blew through Tupelo, which is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of Memphis.

Cooper began releasing inventory it had warehoused to customers on April 18 to minimize disruptions to its customers.

Goodyear bought Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. for $2.8 billion in 2021.

The Tupelo plant opened in 1984 and is the second-largest production facility in Goodyear’s North American network, according to Modern Tire Dealer. The trade magazine estimates the plant produces about 42,000 tires per day.

Top photo: The broken and damaged trees along U.S. Hwy 45 South are covered with metal and other materials that were ripped off the nearby Cooper Tire and Rubber Company, on April 1, 2023, in Tupelo, Miss. Production at the large north Mississippi tire plant has ground to a halt in the wake of a damaging tornado, halting operations at the second-largest production facility for Goodyear’s North American network. (Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP, File)