Dunlop?
beginnings:
John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he re-invented pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, Harvey Du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later using the name well known to the public, but it was Du Cros's creation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_Dunlop
The du cros connection and sale:
Seeing a commercial opportunity du Cros, now well known in Irish business circles and president of the Irish Cyclist's Association, managed to be invited to form a public listed company to exploit Dunlop's innovations. Friends of du Cros: J. M. Gillies and Dublin cycle agent William Bowden, also persuaded John Boyd Dunlop to join them to promote the new company. With his financial expertise du Cros successfully floated the company's shares keeping all arrangements under his own control.[3][5]
In 1896, du Cros sold that company to a group of people including Ernest T. Hooley for 3 million pounds. The business was then refloated to the public as Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company in May 1896. Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company produced its first car tyre in 1900, considerably after Michelin. Later it began to diversify into aircraft tyres and golf balls.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_du_Cros
Dunlop Rubber further ownership changes:
Arthur Du Cros became personally close to the financier James White, and appointed him as Dunlop's financial advisor in 1913.[10] By 1919, White had acquired control of the company.[1] White speculated on the rubber futures market with disastrous results when the price of rubber collapsed.[1] Meanwhile, there were also quality control problems with tyres.[1] This came to a head in August 1921 when the company announced a loss of £8 million on the year's trading.[1] The company was saved by the intervention of Frederick Szarvasy of the British Foreign and Colonial Corporation.[1] White's board member nominees were removed, and Sir Eric Geddes was appointed as chairman.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunlop_Rubber
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more to come
Diversification and growth:
From 1924, Sir Eric Geddes began to diversify Dunlop.[1] In 1924, the company began to manufacture tennis balls.[13] In 1925, F A Davis was acquired, which had tennis racket manufacturing expertise.[13][14] In 1926 the company acquired Charles Macintosh of Manchester for £2.5 million, and the Dunlop name was applied to footwear and clothing.[1] Dunlop opened acquisition discussions with Slazenger in 1927, but without success.[13] By 1928 only 72 percent of turnover was in tyres, compared to 90 percent in 1920.[1]
An advertising campaign in 1928 heralded "the Dunlop way".[13]
In the late 1920s, Dunlop had manufacturing subsidiaries in the US, Canada, France, Germany and Japan.[15] By 1930, Dunlop secured an equal market share with its archrival Michelin in France.[15]
In 1929, Dunlopillo latex foam was patented.[1] In 1933, the commercial production of Dunlopillo products began.[1]
In 1930, Dunlop was the eighth largest public company in Britain by market value.[1]
The inter-war years saw considerable international expansion for Dunlop.[1] The German subsidiary was reacquired after the First World War, and by 1929, Dunlop of Germany operated the second largest tyre factory in the country.[1] Dunlop built manufacturing facilities in Ireland, South Africa and India during the 1930s.[1] In 1932 the Dunlop bridge was built over the Circuit De La Sarthe, home to the Le Mans 24-hour race.[16]
The years 1922 to 1937 firmly established Dunlop as a household name.[15] By 1939, Dunlop was one of the largest British multinational companies.[15]
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Geddes is a key name.
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Post war:
By 1946, Dunlop had 70,000 employees, and sales outlets in nearly every country in the world.[17] In 1948 Dunlop invented the self-sealing tyre, which reduced the risk from blowouts.[18] In the early 1950s, Dunlop developed Maxaret, the first anti-lock braking system.[19] By 1955 Dunlop had almost half of the UK tyre market.[20] A report by the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission in that year found that Dunlop and the four other main sellers in the UK market (Goodyear, Avon, Firestone and Michelin) companies had arrangements which resulted in fixed prices.[20] These arrangements were forced to change, and Dunlop's market share decreased.[12] In July 1956, the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission published a further document with implications for Dunlop products entitled Report on the Supply of Certain Rubber Footwear[21], which covered rubber boots of all kinds including wellingtons and overboots.
The merge with Pirelli and the 1970s oil crisis impact:
In 1971, Dunlop merged with Pirelli of Italy to form the world's third-largest tyre company after Goodyear and Firestone.[12] The merger was not a takeover by either company, but a joint venture arrangement where each company took minority interests in the other's subsidiaries.[28] The merger was not successful, and the joint venture was dissolved in 1981.[12] Pirelli was not profitable throughout the entire duration of the merger.[29]
The decline of the British car manufacturing industry from 1972 onwards also impacted the core Dunlop business.[24] Matters were compounded by the 1973 oil crisis.[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunlop_Rubber
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more to come
>>8482185 part 1 - dunlop
>>8482279 part 2 - dunlop - pirelli merge
Takeover and breakup:
As a result of increasing competition in the tyre industry, and the disastrous results of the Pirelli tie-up, Dunlop had amassed massive debts. Sir Reay Geddes stepped down as chairman in 1978 and Sir Campbell Fraser took over. Between 1978 and 1981 Dunlop spent $102 million on modernising its European tyre business.[31] The British workforce was cut from 13,000 to 7,000.[31] Angus and the company rubber plantations were sold. By July 1983, the Malaysian businessman Ghafar Baba had built a 26.1 percent stake in the company.[12]
In September 1983, the European tyre business was sold to its former subsidiary, Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd of Japan, for £82 million.[12] In 1984 the remaining tyre factories in New Zealand and India were sold for £200 million.[12] In 1985 the company was acquired by BTR plc for £100 million.[32] BTR immediately sold the US tyre business to its management for £142 million.[33]
BOOM! here we have the AKRON connection (in bold):
Sumitomo Rubber Industries sold tyres for road vehicles with the Dunlop brand from 1985 to 1999. In 1999 Sumitomo RI and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of the US formed a joint venture. Goodyear obtained the Dunlop tyre assets in Europe and the US, and Sumitomo RI continued to sell Dunlop tyres in other countries.
The Dunlop Tyres company in South Africa was acquired by the Indian company Apollo Tyres in 2007. In December 2013, Apollo Tyres sold most of its South African operations to Sumitomo RI for $60 million (Rs 3.33 billion) including the Ladysmith passenger car tyre plant. Apollo Tyres retained its Durban plant, which manufactured truck & bus radial (TBR) tyres and off-highway tyres used in the mining and construction industries (The Durban plant however closed in 2014 after management failed to maintain profitability). Sumitomo RI had also previously acquired ownership rights for the Dunlop brand in 32 African markets.[41] In 2018 Sumitomo RI started manufacturing truck & bus radial (TBR) tyres at the Ladysmith plant. Much of this TBR equipment was acquired from the closed Apollo Tyres Durban plant. Sumitomo RI invested heavily in the Ladysmith plant. By 2018 the plant was almost double the size since they acquired the company in 2013.
BTR began to divest itself of the Dunlop businesses from 1996 in order to transform itself from a conglomerate into a streamlined engineering company. In 1996, it sold Dunlop Slazenger to its management, backed by private equity group CINVen for £372 million, who in 2004 sold the business to Sports Direct International for £40 million.[34]
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tldr: in 1999 Goodyear obtained the rights to sell Dunlop in Europe and the US, and Sumimoto continued to sell it elsewhere.
>>8482185 dunlop pt1
>>8482279 dunlop pt2
>>8482393 dunlop pt3 - Akron (goodyear) connection
Here is THE BRIDGE to B.F. Goodrich - BTR:
Early years
BTR started in 1924, when the B.F.Goodrich Company of the USA formed a UK subsidiary British Goodrich Rubber Co. Ltd. In 1934 Goodrich sold most of its shares in the company, which changed its name to the British Tyre & Rubber Co. Ltd.[1] In 1956 the company changed its name to BTR Limited, when it ceased production of tyres.[2]
Owen Green and subsequent years; acquisitive industrial group
The Company was dominated by Sir Owen Green from 1967 to 1993 first as managing director (until 1986) and then as chairman.[3] His focus was on operating margins and cash flow, arguably at the cost of long-term investment.[citation needed]
By 1982 BTR had acquired a large number of companies in the United Kingdom, the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Germany.[2] BTR acquired the Thomas Tilling group in 1983, and Dunlop Holdings plc in 1985.[4] The Dunlop road tyre business was immediately sold to Sumitomo Rubber Industries.[5] In late 1985, BTR launched a hostile take-over bid for Pilkington, a leading manufacturer of high quality glass, with operations worldwide. After a successful defensive campaign by Pilkington, BTR was forced to withdraw its offer in early 1986.[6]
BTR purchased Schlegel Corporation in late 1988 through a subsidiary. Schlegel had manufacturing facilities for door and window seals and related products in twelve countries.[7] Schlegel made automobile and building products in Europe through its subsidiaries Schlegel UK and Schlegel GmbH.[8] After the purchase BTR decided to transfer the Schlegel UK and Schlegel GmbH subsidiaries from Schlegel Corporation to itself.[7] There was a dispute over how the transfer should be valued for tax purposes, with BTR valuing the Schlegel UK and Schlegel GmbH subsidiaries at $21,846,000 and $9,400,000, while the Internal Revenue Service valued them at $49,069,000 and $13,246,000.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTR_plc
>>8482185 dunlop pt1
>>8482279 dunlop pt2
>>8482393 dunlop pt3 - Akron (goodyear) connection
The Sumimoto connection:
The company traces its origins to 1909, when the Sumitomo Group made an investment in Dunlop Japan, the newly formed Japanese subsidiary of the British company Dunlop Rubber. Over the years Sumitomo and Dunlop developed a close business relationship, and in 1963 the Sumitomo Group acquired control of Dunlop Japan and renamed it Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd.
In 1985, when Dunlop Rubber was taken over by BTR plc, the company acquired the automobile tire assets of Dunlop, including the right to use the Dunlop brand on automobile tires. The acquisition did not include the US and Australian businesses, which were separately owned, but in 1986 Sumitomo also acquired the Dunlop Tire Corporation of the US from its management.[6]