BFGoodrich is becoming Goodrich. Dropping two initials may seem a small matter, but it marks a significant step in the continuing evolution of a 130-year-old company.

Goodrich today is dramatically different from the company created in 1870 by Benjamin Franklin Goodrich. Once one of the world's largest and most respected manufacturers of rubber products, we are now a top-tier performer in the aerospace and industrial sectors. Despite all this change, our underlying values of risk-taking, entrepreneurialism and innovation have remained constant.

It was his entrepreneurial spirit that led Dr. Goodrich to start the first rubber company west of the Alleghenies. And it was his commitment to technical excellence and scientific innovation that spawned a steady stream of new products that forever changed the way we live -- from sparking the emergence of the rubber industry, to launching the worldwide vinyl industry, to making air travel safer, to enhancing the performance of many everyday products with specialty chemicals. This legacy continues today with a new product and technology pipeline more robust than ever.

Today Goodrich stands out as a strong company with great potential to thrive and grow. The time has come for a new corporate identity, one that is as dynamic, strong and aspirational as the company it will represent. That's why, at the company's annual meeting in April 2001, our shareholders will be asked to approve a legal name change from The B.F. Goodrich Company to Goodrich Corporation. With their approval, we will adopt the new name and logo on June 1.

Choosing Goodrich Corporation as our name is not a dramatic change. We could have selected a completely different name to emphasize the transformation and eliminate the potential for associating the company with its former tire business. But we didn't. We decided that the Goodrich name is too powerful to give up. It is recognized around the world and enjoys a very strong reputation in the aerospace industry, where Fortune magazine ranks us among the top 10 "Most Admired Companies." We also have seen the power of the Goodrich name in extending it to our industrial businesses over the past two years.

So we decided that this great name, which has represented one of America's oldest companies for 130 years, should be part of our future.

As for tires, we believe our new identity, with its distinctive logo, will help eliminate the confusion.

To help tell the Goodrich story, our new logo includes a symbol which represents achievement, attainment and aspiration. We believe it is very appropriate in light of how far we've come and how far we intend to go as a leading global supplier of aerospace and industrial products.

A small change. A big difference.

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