Dunlop through the rear-view mirror

INCEPTION
The father of pneumatic tyres, Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop had founded the UK-based Dunlop Tyres. In 1896, Dunlop started marketing cycle tyres in India and incorporated the business in 1926 with Rs 50 lakh. The company assumed the name Dunlop India in 1928.

THEN AND NOW
In 1936, Dunlop set up the first tyre manufacturing plant in Asia at Sahagunj, Bandel, near Kolkata. While it had started manufacturing tyres for passenger cars, cycles and even animal-drawn vehicles then, it eventually added capacities for truck, scooters, earthmovers and aircrafts, and industrial products. With the objective to manufacture rubber goods, it also was known for its pillow brand, Dunlopillo. Some of its earliest advertising includes text-heavy print ads on the "finest materials and the faculty of blending" exhorting users to fit Dunlop tyres, another on a series of great Indian travellers reminding us of "modern road travel" and even one asking customers to restore the "Empire's overseas trade" by buying more Dunlop tyres right after the World War. In living memory, Kolkata still bears the stamp of the brand, with the junction close to a hoarding it advertised on for decades still called Dunlop bridge. The 1980s saw a new campaign called "Dunlop is Dunlop. Always ahead", which accompanied the brand trying to strengthen its distribution network.

However, it is one of the brands which fell prey to financial and labour crises at its plants. It started getting into trouble in 1970s, saw a spark of growth in mid-1980s to 90s, before the plant saw its first shutdown. In a low margin, high technology industry, Dunlop only had brand equity and very little progress on the manufacturing front, despite a trimmed product basket in the 80s.

NAMES BEHIND THE BRAND
Manu Chhabria, who along with R P Goenka acquired control of Dunlop in 1984; Pawan Ruia, who bought Dunlop in 2005

REINVENTED?
The brand is in the doldrums without much hope of a resurrection. The column, 50&Counting, will chronicle brands which have survived for 50 years and more in India. We decipher their good times and bad times.