It was one of the first multinationals, and under du Cros and, after him, under Eric Geddes, grew to be one of the largest British industrial companies.

In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish veterinary surgeon living in Ireland discovered the pneumatic tyre principle.

[6][7] To own the rights and exploit the discovery, the "Pneumatic Tyre and Booth's Cycle Agency Co. Ltd" was incorporated in 1889 and floated by Harvey du Cros, who was, amongst other things, president of the Irish Cyclists' Association.

The invitation to du Cros to participate was made by William Bowden, a Dublin cycle agent.

They employed inventor Charles Kingston Welch and also acquired other rights and patents which allowed them to protect their business's position to some extent.

[9] In the early 1890s, Pneumatic Tyre established divisions in Europe and North America, sending there four of du Cros's six sons.

Factories were established overseas because foreign patents rights would only be maintained if the company was engaged in active manufacture where its tyres were sold.

[3] An American business was established in the USA in 1893 with a factory in Buffalo, New York,[3] after Harvey du Cros junior was old enough (21) to sign the necessary deeds.

[10] In 1893 home manufacture was relocated from Belfast and Dublin to Coventry, the centre of the British cycle industry.

The Dublin Corporation had launched a case against Pneumatic Tyre, claiming nuisance from the smell of rubber and naphtha.

The following year a major interest was taken in their component supplier Byrne Bros India Rubber of Lichfield Road, Aston, Birmingham.

The same year du Cros started Cycle Components Manufacturing in Selly Oak to supply inner tubes.

[11] In 1896 Harvey Du Cros persuaded his board to sell Pneumatic Tyre to financier Ernest Terah Hooley for £3 million.

[13] Hooley drummed up support by offering financial journalists cheap shares and appointing aristocrats to the board, and quickly sold the business again, this time as the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, for £5 million,[13] providing a gross profit to Hooley's syndicate including du Cros of £1.7 million.

[3] Between 1904 and 1909, the French Dunlop subsidiary lost a total of £200,000, as European rivals such as Michelin of France and Continental of Germany overtook it in the motor tyre market.

The amalgamation was intended to bring about a substantial reduction in overhead and clarify what had been seen as a confusing relationship between the two enterprises when they shared most shareholders.

For supply, Du Cros selected estates in Ceylon and Malaya for purchase, and by 1917 the company owned about 60,000 acres of rubber plantations.

[3] White's board member nominees were removed, and Sir Eric Geddes was appointed as chairman.

[16][17] In 1926 the company acquired Charles Macintosh of Manchester for £2.5 million, and the Dunlop name was applied to footwear and clothing.

[16] In the late 1920s, Dunlop had manufacturing subsidiaries in the US, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, India and Japan.

[3] 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.

[3] In 1932 the Dunlop bridge was built over the Circuit De La Sarthe, home to the Le Mans 24-hour race.

[23] 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.

[5] In 1971, Dunlop merged with Pirelli of Italy to form the world's third-largest tyre company after Goodyear and Firestone.

[33] The decline of the British car manufacturing industry from 1972 onwards also impacted the core Dunlop business.

[1] In September 1983, the European tyre business was sold to its former subsidiary, Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd of Japan, for £82 million.

[37] BTR began to divest itself of the Dunlop businesses from 1996 in order to transform itself from a conglomerate into a streamlined engineering company.

Sumitomo RI had also previously acquired ownership rights for the Dunlop brand in 32 African markets.

[45] In 2018 Sumitomo RI started manufacturing truck & bus radial (TBR) tyres at the Ladysmith plant.