What Cooper Standard makes

Cooper Standard is a global automotive Tier 1 supplier built around two core systems: sealing and fluid handling. The sealing business produces custom rubber and thermoplastic extrusions, molded components, and weather-strip systems that seal doors, windows, trunks, and body openings. The fluid handling business splits into fluid transfer systems and fuel and brake delivery systems, the lines and connectors that route coolant, fuel, brake fluid, and thermal-management fluids through a vehicle.

Underneath both product families is a materials business. Cooper Standard compounds its own EPDM rubber, licenses material technology, and markets Fortrex, a proprietary lightweight material platform it developed to cut weight and cost out of sealing applications. The company also runs an Industrial and Specialty Group that sells catalog parts into recreational vehicles, agriculture equipment, power sports, and other non-automotive markets, which gives it a revenue base outside the passenger-vehicle cycle.

The customer base is the global vehicle industry, and the products are body and chassis components rather than powertrain. That places Cooper Standard among the sealing and fluid systems specialists whose content ships on nearly every OEM platform, internal-combustion, hybrid, and battery-electric alike, since every vehicle still needs to be sealed and needs fluids moved through it.

Financial performance

Cooper Standard reported full-year 2025 sales of $2.74 billion, up 0.4 percent versus 2024. Operating income rose 24 percent to $86.6 million, and Adjusted EBITDA reached $209.7 million, up from $180.7 million a year earlier. The company posted a net loss of $4.2 million for the year, an improvement of $74.6 million over 2024, which puts the bottom line close to breakeven after several harder years.

The trajectory continued into 2026. Second-quarter 2026 sales were $721.3 million, up 2.2 percent year over year, with free cash flow of $16.3 million, an improvement of $39.7 million from the same quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $53.9 million, down from $62.8 million, which the company attributed to higher costs for materials, duties, and tariffs alongside general inflation. As of June 30, 2026, Cooper Standard held $126.6 million in cash and $294.2 million in total liquidity including availability under its asset-based revolving credit facility, and it maintained the midpoint of its full-year guidance.

New business continued to come in. Net new business awards for the first half of 2026 totaled $246.3 million in anticipated incremental annualized sales, of which $68.3 million was tied to battery-electric or full-hybrid platforms. All figures are drawn from the company's investor results.

Ownership and history

Cooper Standard's business roots run to 1960. The current corporate entity, Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., was formed in December 2004 when the Cypress Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners acquired the automotive segment of Cooper Tire and Rubber Company. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CPS in October 2013 and has traded publicly since.

The company carries the debt structure of a business that reworked its balance sheet under pressure. In January 2023 Cooper Standard completed a set of refinancing transactions that exchanged the bulk of its 2026 senior notes for new secured notes due 2027 and issued $580 million of first-lien notes, extending maturities at elevated coupons. Since then the operating picture has improved, with positive free cash flow and rising operating income, though the 2027 maturities and thin margins remain the numbers a procurement team should watch.

Cooper Standard is headquartered in Northville, Michigan, and runs a large international footprint. As of the end of 2025 it operated 108 facilities in 20 countries, of which 65 are predominantly manufacturing sites, and employed roughly 22,000 people including contingent workers. Its leadership is led by Jeffrey S. Edwards, chairman and chief executive officer since 2013, and Jonathan P. Banas, executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2017.

Certifications and quality

Cooper Standard operates under IATF 16949:2016, the automotive quality management standard, certified on a multi-site basis across its manufacturing plants. Individual plant certificates published by the company cover activities such as the design and manufacturing of rubber compounds and weather-strip sealing systems. IATF 16949 is the baseline expectation for a direct automotive supplier, and multi-site certification is the norm for a manufacturer of this scale rather than a differentiator. Quality recognition from customers is more telling: the company has been named a General Motors Supplier of the Year for nine consecutive years, most recently for 2025.

Known customers

Cooper Standard's largest relationships are with the traditional Detroit and global OEMs, and its customer concentration is disclosed in its filings.

The concentration in Ford, GM, and Stellantis means Cooper Standard's volumes track North American light-vehicle production closely, a factor worth weighing against the tariff pressure those same automakers are absorbing.

Sourcing evidence

Cooper Standard appears in US customs records as an active importer through several entities. Its largest US importer identity carries more than 3,000 sea shipments on record with a most recent shipment dated September 21, 2026, and a second entity carries roughly 1,800 more. The pattern reflects a manufacturer with a heavy US and Mexico border footprint, moving intercompany components and Tier-2 parts across the border to feed its plants rather than importing finished goods for resale.

Coverage caveats apply. These are US ocean-freight records only, so air, truck, and rail movements, including most US-Mexico truck flows, do not appear. Some records name freight intermediaries or intercompany entities rather than the ultimate manufacturer, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. For a company that ships across the border by truck constantly, the ocean record understates the true sourcing volume. Buyers weighing nearshoring and tariff exposure should read the customs footprint as directional rather than complete.

Frequently asked questions

What does Cooper Standard make?

Cooper Standard manufactures automotive sealing systems and fluid handling systems. Sealing covers weather-strip, custom extrusions, and molded components that seal vehicle body openings. Fluid handling covers fluid transfer systems and fuel and brake delivery systems. It also compounds its own EPDM rubber, licenses material technology, markets its Fortrex lightweight material, and sells catalog parts into industrial and specialty markets.

Who owns Cooper Standard?

Cooper Standard is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CPS. It has traded publicly since October 2013. The holding company, Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., was formed in 2004 out of the automotive segment of Cooper Tire and Rubber Company.

What is Cooper Standard's revenue?

Cooper Standard reported full-year 2025 sales of $2.74 billion, up 0.4 percent over 2024, with operating income of $86.6 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $209.7 million. Second-quarter 2026 sales were $721.3 million, up 2.2 percent year over year.

Where is Cooper Standard headquartered?

Cooper Standard is headquartered in Northville, Michigan, in the Detroit area. The company operates 108 facilities in 20 countries, of which 65 are predominantly manufacturing sites, and employs roughly 22,000 people including contingent workers.

Who are Cooper Standard's customers?

Cooper Standard's three largest customers are Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which together represented about 56 percent of 2025 sales. Its broader customer list includes Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Renault-Nissan, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, and Rivian. General Motors has named it Supplier of the Year for nine consecutive years.

What certifications does Cooper Standard hold?

Cooper Standard operates under IATF 16949:2016, the automotive quality management standard, certified across its manufacturing plants on a multi-site basis. This is the baseline quality certification expected of a direct automotive supplier.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.