Dunlop Tyres-One the founder and therefore earliest tyre companies and still a great tyre company.
Dunlop Tyres
It was back in 1888 in Scotland. Thus, when the pneumatic tyres were invented by John Boyd Dunlop. Yet, another great British invention. He was working on his son’s bicycle at the time. Hence, he came up an inflated rubber tube filled with air. Of course, it was fitted around a metal rim for comfort. Hence, the rubber tyre was born. This invention paved the way for the future of the great company we now know as Dunlop tyres.
In 1985 Dunlop were bought by BTR plc and later a Japanese company Sumitomo were given the rights to make tyres under the Dunlop tyres road brand, it then started producing tyres in its UK subsidiary under the Dunlop Tyres Ltd name.
In 1999, the Sumitomo group began talks with Goodyear tyres and Goodyear bought a 75% stake in the company. Sumitomo carried on making Dunlop products in Japan and Goodyear made Dunlop in North America.
Motorsport tyre introduced
In 2006, The new tyre company stopped making tyres here in the UK. Motorsport tyres are still produced out of their Birmingham UK factory, turning out about 300,000 specialist tyres a year.
The old factory can still be seen from the M6 motorway as you travel through Birmingham but it is a shadow of its former self, joining in with the rest of the decline of British manufacturing in the UK, very sad, I have had many visits to the old tyre factory in its former glory days but now the tyre products are produced in China, Poland and Slovenia, not a British product anymore.
Goodyear Dunlop tyres also own two smaller tyre companies,
Fulda and Sava both brands that we used to sell in past and are good quality tyres. Goodyear tyres now operate from offices in Luxembourg and Brussels, who report to the main head office which is still in Akron USA.
