Pep Boys Names Cooper Tire as Primary Tire Supplier

    PHILADELPHIA--Dec. 13, 2001--The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack , the nation's leading full service automotive aftermarket chain, announced that it has named Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. as its primary tire supplier.
    Pep Boys has entered into an agreement to purchase essentially all of its tires from Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Prior to entering into this new agreement, Pep Boys purchased approximately 60% of its tires from Cooper.

    Pep Boys' Senior Vice President-Merchandising, Don L. Casey, made the following comments:
    "Cooper has been an excellent supplier, both in terms of product quality and sales support, and has earned our respect and trust. Going forward, this is clearly a "win-win" situation for both companies. The additional units will enhance Cooper's capacity utilization and Pep Boys will improve its cost structure on a category that represents 17% of total revenue and plays a very key role in our merchandise offering."

    Mark F. Armstrong, President of Cooper's North America Tire Division, said:
    "We are pleased to take our business to a new level with Pep Boys, a leading tire retailer in the replacement market. We expect our relationship to become even stronger as we continue our tradition of supplying excellent service and top quality products."

    Notes: Certain statements made herein, including those discussing management's expectations for future periods, are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties.
    The Company's actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements due to factors beyond the control of the Company, including the strength of the national and regional economies and retail and commercial consumers' ability to spend, the health of the various sectors of the market that the Company serves, the weather in geographical regions with a high concentration of the Company's stores, competitive pricing, location and number of competitors' stores and product and labor costs.
    Further factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, the factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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