Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at the automotive supply chain, how much does a specialist like Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) really matter, especially with full-year 2025 revenue estimates around $2.78 billion?

Honestly, they matter a lot: the company just reported third-quarter 2025 sales of $695.5 million, with adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) hitting $53.3 million, showing solid margin expansion in a tough market.

The real story isn't just that slight 1.5% year-over-year sales increase, though; it's the future, as evidenced by the $228.5 million in net new business awards through the first nine months of 2025, primarily tied to battery-electric and hybrid vehicle platforms, which is what you defintely need to understand to map their long-term value.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) History

You want to understand the DNA of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., and honestly, you have to look past the 2004 incorporation date. This company is a classic automotive industry story-a complex, multi-decade evolution driven by strategic mergers and a big private equity carve-out. It's not a startup; it's a consolidation play.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The formal corporate entity, Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., was established in 2004 to acquire the automotive segment of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. Its earliest predecessor company, M and M Manufacturing Company, dates back to 1914.

Original location

The current corporate headquarters is in Northville, Michigan. The predecessor company, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, was headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, while the other key predecessor, The Standard Products Company, was founded in Cleveland, Ohio.

Founding team members

The current public company was founded by two private equity sponsors, not individual entrepreneurs. The key financial architects were The Cypress Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, who formed the holding company to execute the acquisition. The original lineage, however, traces back to entrepreneurs like John F. Schaefer, Claude E. Hart, and Ira J. Cooper (Cooper lineage), as well as Dr. James Sims Reid (Standard lineage).

Initial capital/funding

The initial capital was the cash used by the private equity sponsors to acquire the automotive segment. This transaction, completed on December 23, 2004, had a cash purchase price of approximately $1,165 million, excluding fees and working capital adjustments. That's a serious bet on the future of automotive components.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory is defintely defined by two major structural shifts. The first was the consolidation of the core businesses, and the second was the strategic spin-off that created the modern, focused entity.

Here's the quick math on the 2004 spin-off: Cooper Tire & Rubber Company's automotive segment was sold for over $1.165 billion to private equity. That massive cash infusion signaled a clear, singular focus on the non-tire, specialized automotive components business-sealing, fluid handling, and anti-vibration systems. It was a move to maximize value by creating a pure-play supplier.

The near-term focus, as of 2025, is a strategic pivot into electrification (EV) components. This is crucial for their survival. They are securing new business for EV platforms, and their Q3 2025 revenue of $695.5 million reflects a business stabilizing and finding its footing in a changing market. Full-year 2025 revenue is expected to hit about $2.78 billion, which shows a solid, if slightly challenged, top-line performance.

• Acquisition of The Standard Products Company (1999): This merger was the genesis of the modern product portfolio, combining Cooper's rubber expertise with Standard's sealing and trim technology.
• The Private Equity Carve-Out (2004): Separating the automotive parts division from the tire business allowed for a dedicated, global strategy focused solely on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). This move was the most significant transformation.
• The Electrification Pivot (2024-2025): The company is actively diversifying its product mix to support electric vehicles. For instance, the new eCoFlow™ switch pump, a thermal management solution, is a tangible example of how they are adapting their materials science expertise to new vehicle architectures.

What this estimate hides is the intense pressure on margins, but the focus on high-value, high-tech components like the eCoFlow™ pump is the clear path to better profitability. You can get a deeper look at their strategic intent here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS).

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Ownership Structure

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:CPS), meaning its ownership is distributed among a broad base of institutional, insider, and retail investors. Institutional investors, like mutual funds and asset managers, hold the majority stake, giving them significant influence over corporate governance and strategic decisions.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Current Status

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. operates as a publicly held corporation, trading under the ticker symbol CPS on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This status requires the company to adhere to rigorous public reporting standards set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), providing transparency into its financials and operations for all stakeholders.

The company's market capitalization stood at approximately $0.56 Billion USD as of November 2025. For the third quarter of 2025, the company reported sales of $695.5 million, a 1.5% increase over the prior year's third quarter. This public structure allows for capital raising through equity markets but also subjects the company to market volatility and activist investor pressure. You can dive deeper into who is buying and why by Exploring Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

As of the 2025 fiscal year reporting, professional money managers and large funds control the largest portion of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. shares. This level of institutional ownership, over 60%, suggests a high degree of confidence from professional investors, but also means board decisions are defintely influenced by a few major players.

Here's the quick math: Institutional investors own a controlling block. BlackRock, Inc. is the single largest institutional shareholder, with 1,447,782 shares, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. is also a top holder with 946,804 shares. CEO Jeffrey S. Edwards directly owns 2.01% of the company's shares, aligning management interests with shareholders.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by a seasoned Global Leadership Team, with an average management tenure of 5.7 years, which is a sign of stability. The Chairman and CEO, Jeffrey S. Edwards, has been in his role since May 2013, providing over a decade of consistent leadership. His total yearly compensation for 2025 was reported at $8.70 million.

• Jeffrey S. Edwards: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• Jonathan P. Banas: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Patrick R. Clark: President, Sealing Systems and Chief Manufacturing Officer.
• Christopher E. Couch: President, Fluid Handling Systems and Chief Technology Officer.
• MaryAnn P. Kanary: Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary.
• Soma Venkat: Senior Vice President, Chief Information Technology and AI Officer.

This team's mandate is clear: drive value through innovation, especially in thermal management and fluid handling systems, while maintaining a strong focus on cost-saving measures to improve margins, as reflected in the Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of $53.3 million.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Mission and Values

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) anchors its corporate identity on a dual mandate: to be the premier supplier for all stakeholders while simultaneously driving global sustainability through its material science and product innovation. This focus translates to operational excellence that directly impacts the bottom line, as seen in the $53.3 million in Adjusted EBITDA reported for the third quarter of 2025.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Core Purpose

The company's core purpose and values are the cultural DNA that guides every decision, from the manufacturing floor to the boardroom. This commitment to non-financial metrics is defintely a critical indicator of long-term resilience, which you should weigh alongside the financial data in Breaking Down Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Official Mission Statement

Cooper-Standard's mission is clear and stakeholder-centric: to be the preferred partner for everyone it serves, not just customers. This approach ensures that the pursuit of profit is balanced with responsibility to all parties involved.

• BE THE FIRST CHOICE OF THE STAKEHOLDERS WE SERVE.

The company defines its stakeholders broadly, including Customers, Employees, Investors, Suppliers, and the Communities in which it operates. This strategy helps win new business; for example, net new business awards for the first nine months of 2025 totaled nearly $229 million.

Vision Statement

The vision statement, which the company calls its 'Purpose,' is a four-part commitment that maps its long-term strategic direction toward a more sustainable future. It's a pragmatic vision for a global automotive supplier.

• CREATING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TOGETHER.

This purpose is broken down to define what each word means in practice: 'Creating' involves developing game-changing advancements in material science; 'Sustainable' means ensuring continued business viability and reducing the environmental footprint; 'Solutions' focuses on delivering quality products; and 'Together' emphasizes partnership with all stakeholders. This is a serious commitment, as shown by the aspiration to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 in Europe and 2050 globally.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. Core Values in Action

The core values function as the operating principles for the company's approximately 22,000 team members across 20 countries. These values are not just posters on a wall; they are measurable in the company's operational performance.

• SAFETY FIRST: The total incident rate in Q1 2025 was 0.30 reportable incidents per 200,000 hours worked, significantly better than the world-class benchmark of 0.47.
• COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE: This is seen in customer service metrics, where the company achieved a record 100% green on all 317 customer scorecards for quality and service in the second quarter of 2025.
• INTEGRITY ALWAYS: This underpins the commitment to ethical business practices and is a pillar of their corporate responsibility reporting.
• COLLABORATION DRIVES SUCCESS: Partnerships with customers on new program launches maintained a 97% green scorecard rating in Q3 2025.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. Slogan/Tagline

While the company uses its Purpose as a central theme, a recent descriptor that captures its value proposition for investors and customers is a good proxy for a working tagline.

• Full-Service Supplier with Value-Add Impact.

This phrase highlights their role as a comprehensive partner for global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), not just a parts provider. The value-add is often in their material science expertise, which creates lightweight, low-carbon solutions for both traditional and electric vehicle platforms.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) How It Works

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. operates as a critical, global supplier of highly-engineered systems and components, primarily for the automotive industry, making money by designing, manufacturing, and selling essential sealing, fluid handling, and anti-vibration solutions to major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

The company's value creation centers on its deep materials science expertise and its ability to integrate complex components into a vehicle's architecture, especially as the industry shifts toward electric and hybrid platforms, which accounted for $228.5 million in net new business awards in the first nine months of 2025.

Given Company's Product/Service Portfolio

Cooper-Standard focuses on four core product segments that are vital for vehicle performance, safety, and passenger comfort, serving global automotive manufacturers like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and Toyota.

Given Company's Operational Framework

The operational framework is built on a global, product-line-focused structure, a strategic shift undertaken in 2024 to accelerate efficiency and innovation. This is a full-service supplier model that manages the entire product lifecycle from concept to final production, which is defintely a big undertaking.

• Integrated Product Development: The company uses an integrated approach combining innovative design, advanced analytics, and virtual validation to define optimal sealing and fluid handling solutions with customers.
• Global Production Footprint: With a presence in over 20 countries, Cooper-Standard can produce products near customer manufacturing facilities, which allows for quick response to regional market demands and tailored solutions.
• Efficiency and Cost Management: Aggressive lean initiatives and operational efficiencies are a major focus, contributing $20 million in cost savings from manufacturing and purchasing in Q1 2025 alone.
• Quality and Safety Focus: Operational excellence is measured by world-class metrics, including 99% of product quality scorecards rated green and 97% green ratings for new program launches in Q1 2025.

Given Company's Strategic Advantages

Cooper-Standard's market success is rooted in its technical leadership and its proactive alignment with the automotive industry's biggest trends, namely electrification and sustainability. For a deeper dive into who is betting on this strategy, you should check out Exploring Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

• Electrification Content Advantage: The company is capitalizing on the shift to hybrid and battery electric vehicles (EVs), with hybrid platforms projected to have an 80% higher average content per vehicle (CPV) compared to traditional models, driving strong new business awards.
• Materials Science Innovation: Proprietary innovations, such as the low-carbon FlexiCore and FlushSeal sealing systems, offer high-performance solutions that help OEMs meet their own sustainability goals and reduce vehicle weight.
• Strong OEM Relationships: As a key supplier with strong market share in its segments, the company maintains long-term contracts and high customer trust, evidenced by the $228.5 million in net new business awards secured through the first nine months of 2025.
• Margin Expansion Trajectory: Management is focused on achieving double-digit Adjusted EBITDA margins by the end of 2025, leveraging improved manufacturing efficiencies and a better fixed-cost structure.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) How It Makes Money

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. primarily makes money by designing, manufacturing, and selling highly engineered sealing, fluid handling, and anti-vibration systems and components to global automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company secures multi-year contracts for these critical components, generating revenue based on vehicle production volumes and the complexity of the parts used in each car (content per vehicle, or CPV).

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

The company operates through two core segments, with revenue closely balanced between them. Based on the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the total segmental sales were approximately $2.01 billion, with the split detailed below. This distribution shows the reliance on both sealing and fluid transfer solutions across the global automotive market.

Business Economics

The economics of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s business are heavily influenced by global light vehicle production rates, but the company's strategy is to increase its 'content per vehicle' (CPV) through complex, higher-margin systems for electric and hybrid vehicles. This approach aims to de-risk the business from simple volume fluctuations. You can see how this strategy is playing out by Exploring Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

• Pricing Strategy: The company employs a mix of Premium Pricing for its advanced, high-performance components, such as sophisticated sealing and thermal management systems, and Value-Based Pricing that reflects the engineering complexity and mission-critical nature of its parts [cite: 6 in step 1]. This allows them to capture more value than a simple commodity supplier.
• Cost Structure & Efficiency: A long-term focus on operational efficiency and restructuring has been a major tailwind. Since 2019, management's cost-saving measures have contributed approximately $479 million to Adjusted EBITDA [cite: 13 in step 1]. This cost-leadership approach is defintely critical for maintaining margin health against industry-wide inflationary pressures.
• Growth Driver: New business awards for the first nine months of 2025 totaled $228.5 million in anticipated future annualized sales [cite: 5 in step 1]. Crucially, 83% of these new awards are tied to battery-electric and hybrid vehicle platforms, which means the future revenue mix is shifting toward higher-margin, innovative products [cite: 7 in step 1].

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc.'s Financial Performance

The company is demonstrating a marked financial turnaround in 2025, moving toward sustained profitability driven by operational improvements rather than just sales growth. The full-year 2025 revenue is estimated to be around $2.78 billion [cite: 12 in step 1], which is a slight increase over 2024, but the real story is margin expansion.

• Profitability Turnaround: The trailing twelve months (TTM) net income as of September 30, 2025, was $32.72 million, a significant swing from the net losses seen in previous years [cite: 10 in step 1]. This is a huge step.
• Margin Improvement: Gross margin expanded to 12.5% of sales in the third quarter of 2025, up 140 basis points year-over-year [cite: 7 in step 1, 2]. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 was $53.3 million [cite: 5 in step 1].
• Liquidity and Debt: The balance sheet shows a cash and cash equivalents position of $147.6 million as of September 30, 2025, with total liquidity, including the credit facility, at $313.5 million [cite: 5 in step 1]. Management projects capital expenditures in 2025 to be in the range of $45.0 million to $55.0 million.

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS) Market Position & Future Outlook

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. is navigating the automotive industry's electrification shift by leveraging its core sealing and fluid handling expertise to capture new business, positioning itself as a critical Tier 1 supplier. The company's focus on operational excellence and cost control is driving margin expansion, evidenced by a trailing 12-month revenue of approximately $2.73 billion as of September 30, 2025, despite a slowing global production environment.

Competitive Landscape

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. operates in a fragmented but highly competitive Tier 1 automotive supply market, particularly in the global automotive rubber seals segment, which is valued at an estimated $5 billion in 2025. Its competitive advantage lies in its material science innovations, like the Fortrex™ chemistry platform, which allows for diversification outside of traditional automotive applications.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company is defintely focused on a dual strategy: maximizing efficiency in its legacy business while aggressively pursuing growth in new, higher-margin areas like electric vehicles (EVs) and non-automotive markets. This is a tough balancing act, but necessary.

Industry Position

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. is a leading global Tier 1 supplier, holding strong positions in its core product segments of Sealing Systems and Fluid Handling Systems. The company's strategic shift to a product-focused organizational structure is designed to accelerate innovation and improve profitability in 2025 and beyond.

• Maintain market leadership in core sealing systems by focusing on Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) performance and lightweighting solutions for vehicle aerodynamics.
• Expanding modular sealing platforms specifically for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) sensor housings, capturing higher content per vehicle (CPV) in next-generation vehicles.
• The company's commitment to sustainability, including aspirational goals to achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, enhances its standing with environmentally conscious OEMs.
• You can review the foundational principles driving this strategy in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (CPS).