The BFGoodrich Company has changed its legal name to Goodrich Corporation. The company will also adopt a new logo which, it believes, will signify its transformation while reinforcing its reputation in the aerospace industry and extending it to the company’s newer industrial business.

The new name and logo bacame effective on June 1, 2001.

The 130-year old company, founded by Benjamin Franklin Goodrich and once one of the world’s largest manufacturers of rubber products, has changed dramatically since it exited the tyre business. Approximately 84 per cent of the company’s $4.4 billion in annual revenues now comes from the aerospace industry, compared to seven per cent in 1985.

In commenting on the transformation, Goodrich chairman and chief executive officer David Burner said: “Goodrich today is a new company. In aerospace, our largest business, the company’s expansion has been driven by a strategic vision of supplying an ever-broader range of products, systems and services.”

In 1986, Goodrich left the tyre business, which was later purchased by Michelin along with the BFGoodrich tyre brand.

In 1993, Goodrich exited PVC. Fueled by the proceeds from the sale of these businesses, aerospace became the company’s major growth engine.

The involvement in this business had been ignited years earlier with products like aircraft wheels and brakes, evacuation systems and the first commercial pneumatic de-icers.

New product lines including sensors, landing gear and avionics were added to this base.

During the 1990s, the company’s aerospace sales increased to $3.7 billion annually.

Today, Goodrich claims that its products are on almost every aircraft in the world.