The descendant of a once-leading tire and rubber company, Uniroyal Holding Inc., is winding up its operations, and its iconic brand name will soon disappear as a functioning entity.
Uniroyal Holding Inc., which was a subsidiary of the former Uniroyal tire company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to satisfy all personal injury and wrongful death claims related to asbestos in products, settle remaining retirement benefits of former employees, and provide a distribution of assets to creditors.
The Naugatuck, Conn., debtor listed $10 million to $50 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities in its petition filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey on July 31.
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Uniroyal faces 1000s of asbestos claims
Uniroyal Holdings listed 30 law firms in the petition that had filed the most asbestos litigation cases against the debtor, though all amounts on the unsecured asbestos claims were categorized as undetermined.
Asbestos claims ranged from a high of 22,754 cases from Weitz & Luxenberg to a low of 32 cases from Wallace & Graham P.A.
Since Uniroyal Holdings’ formation over 41 years ago, 516,656 personal injury and wrongful death claims were filed against the company with the defendant resolving 216,994 cases and making just under $500 million in payments, according to court documents.
Another 264,232 claims were dismissed, leaving over 35,000 pending cases.
Claims becoming unmanageable
“For the last 40 years, Uniroyal has successfully settled or defended claims against it and managed its liabilities, but the sheer number of asserted litigation claims is massive and will quickly become unmanageable upon retirement of the current Uniroyal employee team that has actively directed and coordinated this effort,” Uniroyal Holding President and General Counsel Robert V. D’Angelo said in a court declaration.
Uniroyal Holdings filed the bankruptcy case with a proposed consensual joint Chapter 11 plan, along with subsidiary Great Hill Corporation, to satisfy all non-personal injury and wrongful death claims against the debtors, establish a settlement trust to assume, administer, and resolve all present and future personal injury and wrongful death claims against the debtors, and dissolve the debtors.
Great Hill Corporation is the beneficiary of a $2.48 million intercompany note with a maturity date of July 20, 2028.
Company has 140 retirees in plan
The number of participants in the retiree benefit plan has declined from about 10,000 beneficiaries when the debtor was established in 1985 to 140 retirees currently with an average age of 92.
Under the consensual plan, the debtor will identify third-party providers to facilitate the retiree benefits plan. It also reached an agreement on the consensual plan with an ad hoc group of personal injury and wrongful death claimants.
Once one of America’s largest tire companies, Uniroyal Holding was established in 1985 as part of an acquisition and restructuring of tire company Uniroyal Inc.
The company’s main objectives over the last 41 years were to provide retirement benefits to former employees of Uniroyal Inc. and its discontinued businesses and to manage various types of litigation.
Uniroyal Inc. was taken private in 1985 after a hostile takeover attempt by a corporate raider and was reorganized into six wholly owned subsidiaries, including Uniroyal Holding.
Original Dow Jones Industrial index
Uniroyal Inc. was established in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company operating in the rubber-footwear industry and in 1896 was listed as one of the original 12 companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, trading under the ticker “R,” according to court documents.
The company expanded quickly, becoming a business conglomerate that included general rubber, tire, chemical, industrial-products and synthetic-rubber enterprises. The company also established rubber plantations in Sumatra and present-day Malaysia, becoming one of the world’s largest natural rubber producers.
Tire shipments decline
While Uniroyal Holdings is no longer in the tire business, the tire manufacturing industry faced a downturn in 2025, as total U.S. tire shipments declined from 337.3 million units in 2024 to 336.3 million units in 2025, according to data from the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association.
Tire shipments had risen slightly over the previous six years from 332.7 million units in 2019, until the 2025 decline.
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