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Goodyear to Expand Statesville

27 October 1997

Goodyear to Expand Statesville

    STATESVILLE, N.C., Oct. 27 -- Goodyear has announced a
$20 million investment in new plant and equipment to expand the manufacturing
capacity of its mold plant here, a move which will result in the addition of
some 80 jobs over the next two years.
    "The development and testing of the plant's new mold technology, the
success of the molds in producing tires, and the dedication of the Statesville
workforce prompted the investment," said Clay Orme, vice president of product
supply.
    "Although the project will take about two years to complete," Orme added,
"actual production start-up is scheduled for the third quarter of 1998."
    "I am very proud of Goodyear's commitment to our state and proud of their
efforts to boost job skills through our industrial training programs," said
North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt Jr.  "They have been an outstanding corporate
citizen in North Carolina for more than 25 years and provided our workers with
thousands of vital jobs."
    The Statesville plant, which currently employs about 60 workers,
manufactures and assembles molds and mold parts for Goodyear's North American
passenger and truck tire plants.
    The latest investment exceeds Goodyear's initial outlay of $14 million for
the Statesville facility.
    The expenditure increases Goodyear's total investment in its North
Carolina facilities to more than $200 million.  The company currently employs
more than 5,000 associates in five North Carolina operations.  In addition to
Asheboro and Statesville, Goodyear has a subsidiary Kelly-Springfield tire
plant in Fayetteville; a tire retread subsidiary, Brad Ragan, Inc.,
headquartered in Charlotte, and a conveyor belt subsidiary, Belt Concepts, in
Spring Hope.
    Molds are pieces of equipment in which tires are shaped.  The tires are
placed in molds which are in turn placed into presses.  Pressure in the mold
shapes the tread pattern while the heat, created by the press, cures or
vulcanizes the rubber.

SOURCE  The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company