Conti marks 140 years of rubber

ERJ staff report (DS)

Hanover, Germany -- Continental AG will mark its 140th anniversary tomorrow, 8 October.

Nine Hanover-based bankers and industrialists founded Continental-Caoutchouc & Gutta-Percha Compagnie as a joint stock company on 8 October, 1871.

At the parent plant in Hanover, an initial workforce of around 200 employees manufactured, among other things, soft rubber products such as hot water bottles, toy dolls and rubberised fabrics, as well as solid tyres for carriages and bicycles. Sales in the 1880s amounted to roughly 3.3 million marks. That corresponds to a present-day purchasing power of around 21.5 million euros. By way of comparison, the Continental Corporation reported worldwide sales of 26 billion euros in 2010. This year, the company is striving for sales of at least 29.5 billion euros.

In the late 1920s, major companies in the German rubber industry merged to form Continental Gummi-Werke AG. The company first began to develop its international orientation in the early 1980s, when it acquired the European tyre operations of the American company Uniroyal Inc., took over the North American tyre manufacturer General Tire, and purchased majority holdings in the Portuguese company Mabor and the Czech tyremaker Barum.

Conti said in 1904, it became the first company in the world to develop car tyres with tread patterns. It was also first with removable rims for touring cars in 1908 and the first German company to make tubeless tyres in 1943.

To mark the occasion of Continental's anniversary, various individual celebrations have already been held throughout the year at many of the 190 Continental locations around the world.

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Press release from Continental