Dunlop has been based in Birmingham for nearly 100 years and is part of the landscape but the company’s base was always in jeopardy after Jaguar Land Rover bought the Dunlop site for expansion last May.
‘Fort Dunlop’, the original tyre factory and offices, opened in 1916 and by 1954 the factory area employed 10,000 workers. In the 1970s it was still the biggest tyre factory outside the United States, but the increased number of imported cars led to a decline in demand and the company was sold in the 1980s and large scale tyre production ceased. Dunlop Tyres continued to produce specialised vintage, motorcycle and motorsport tyres in a corner of the old site.
