B. F. Goodrich Reports Sharply Higher Earnings

B. F. Goodrich, which launched a major restructuring last year, reported significant improvement in its net income during the third quarter, compared to a year earlier.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Akron, Ohio-based company had net income of $16.6 million, up sharply from last year’s $800,000 profit.

Revenue fell about 31% in the third quarter to $574.1 million from $834.9 million a year earlier.

The revenue drop was due to the formation in August of a joint tire making venture with Uniroyal. Since the joint venture began, the income is reported using the equity method and not as operating income, meaning the only operating income was for July.

For the first nine months this year, Goodrich reported net income of $19.7 million, compared to a net loss of $349.4 million last year. Revenue declined to $2.1 billion from $2.4 billion a year earlier.

“Our chemical and aerospace businesses performed well during the quarter, with each unit producing higher income than last year,” Goodrich Chairman John D. Ong said. “We are beginning to see the improvement we expect from these operations.

“Goodrich is clearly a different company from a year ago. This has been a year of transition as we implemented our restructuring program and established the Uniroyal Goodrich joint venture. Overall, we are pleased with the progress of the core businesses in the restructured Goodrich and in the progress that the new tire joint venture is making.”

The Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co. is a general partnership jointly owned by subsidiaries of Uniroyal and Goodrich.

The June, 1985, plan involved the sale, closing down and writing down of assets valued at more than $500 million. The largest part of the program was the sale of the company’s assets used to produce polyvinyl chloride feed stocks.

Goodrich had said that the restructuring should make the company smaller but more profitable, especially in the tire and PVC operations.

Ong said that a $3.4-million loss attributable to the tire joint venture included Goodrich’s share of the start-up cost expected to be incurred by the joint venture over the rest of 1986.