Dunlop

An introduction to the brand

Dunlop tyres offer drivers maximum driving pleasure. This approach is reflected in Touch Technology, the foundation for product development. With Dunlop tyres, the driver gets a better feeling of the road thanks to increased response, making it easier to handle the car and as a result making the driving experience more enjoyable. Dunlop can boast a long list of winners in tyre tests.

Dunlop's extensive experience in auto and motorcycle racing, with an impressive list of successes, has resulted in advanced technology for tyres designed for everyday use. Whatever the driving style of the car driver or motorcyclist, the Dunlop programme offers a tyre that benefits from the most advanced technology for its performance and durability.

For no less than 120 years, the Dunlop brand has been synonymous for success, know-how and innovation in the field of tyre production. Dunlop is one of the largest tyre manufacturers in the world and produces and supplies tyres for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles.

A brief history: simple ideas can change the world

Dunlop's success story doesn't start with four wheels, but three. In 1888, the company's founder, veterinarian John Boyd Dunlop, watched his young son Johnny riding his tricycle with massive rubber tyres over a bumpy path. He noticed that the boy wasn't riding very fast, and the ride did not seem particularly comfortable to him either. In an effort to make the tricycle more comfortable for the boy and improve its handling, he wrapped the wheels in thin rubber sheets, glued these together and inflated the result with a football pump, using the top of a baby bottle as a valve. This is how Dunlop developed the first air cushion system in history and laid the foundation for the first pneumatic tyre.

In 1890, Dunlop opened its first tyre factory in Dublin, Ireland and three years later its first factory on the European mainland in Hanau, Germany.
In 1984, a merger was realised of Dunlop's European and American activities and the organisation in Japan, making the company a division of the Sumitomo Group.
In 1999, Sumitomo and the Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company formed a global alliance, making it the world's largest tyre manufacturer.

The technicians and designers working for Dunlop in Europe, the US and Japan, constantly exchange their experiences in order to reap maximum benefits from all the available knowledge. As a result, Dunlop can continuously manufacture tyres with exceptional characteristics in its production centres spread across three continents. The fact that Dunlop is a strong brand and a healthy company is expressed in the eight key sub-areas within which the firm works to give car drivers and motorcyclists a better driving experience: Auto Racing, R&D, Innovation, Test Results, Original Equipment, Tuning, 4X4 and UHP.