History The company was founded in Ireland in 1888 by Harvey du Cros; his cyclist sons had achieved great results using John Boyd's patented pneumatic tyres.
The principal plant was set up near Birmingham, and known as Fort Dunlop.
At one stage, the company's rubber plantations in Malaya were the largest private landholding in the British Empire.
As a result of a commodity crisis in 1921 the du Cros management was supplanted by Sir Eric Geddes and Sir George Beharrell.
The company had a minority shareholding in the Australian company, and a majority in New Zealand; there were manufacturing plants in many other countries.Under standing agreements, Goodyear and Dunlop would make tyres with each other's brands in countries where only one of them had a factory.
The Dunlop group diversified widely, only to collapse in 1983 after prolonged negotiations with Pirelli and mounting losses; the tyre brands were sold to Sumitomo of Japan and Dunlop Tire Corporation of America (later acquired by Sumitomo).