How Englebert became Uniroyal:
How a company from Liège became a major global operator

Hanover/Geneva, March 2009. Over 140 years ago, Oscar Englebert opened a small shop selling rubber items. Although he got off to a slow start, a lucrative business eventually developed propelled chiefly by the rise of car ownership. Englebert thus opened a fascinating chapter in economic history.

Here you can download this press release as a word document.

In 1868, former Belgian artillery officer Oscar Englebert opened a shop selling rubber items. This was something of a novelty in Liège. However, on the Place aux Chevaux sales of these newfangled rubber goods were sluggish and paper goods were sold to boost turnover. Two years later though, demand skyrocketed.

The company managed to hold its own and even expand. Oscar Englebert employed his brother Gabriel, a qualified engineer, within the firm and entrusted him with technical matters whilst he focused on the commercial and personnel side of the business. Soon after however, Englebert’s brother died and all hopes were pinned on his son, Oscar Englebert Jr., then still a student. Due to serious illness, the founder was forced to hand over control of the plant to this son shortly after this.

As is the case nowadays, a legal permit was needed to open a rubber factory in 1877. Oscar Englebert was granted one on 19 December 1877. From babies’ dummies to conveyor belts for coal mines in the Congo, Englebert manufactured every conceivable item provided of course that it was made of rubber. 1895 marked the start of the real story when the factory began to manufacture tires – in this case bicycle tires and inner tubes.

Women’s nimble hands were particularly well-suited for making tires and therefore the majority of workers employed by Englebert were female, earning the factory the title of "the Liège harem”. At the turn of the century, Michelin was often synonymous with tires. For his part, Englebert manufactured not only his own brand but produced tires for the German company Continental AG. However, he then tried to boost the popularity of his own products through motor racing which proved effective in the long-term. In 1899, the Journal de Liège wrote: “During the Paris to Amsterdam motor race, there were a number of teams lucky enough to have discovered a well equipped tire manufacturer in Liège, and Englebert enabled them to complete the race when their x, y and z tires failed miserably.”

The company became suddenly famous when Englebert series tires were used to win the Le Mans 24 hours without a tire change. At the time, tire changes were considered inevitable. From that point onwards, Englebert was regarded as the definitive racing tire manufacturer. Stuck, Nuvolari and Fangio used Englebert tires and Enzo Ferrari fitted them on his vehicles both before and after the war. A similar degree of success was achieved at rallies.

At the beginning of the First World War, the Englebert plants were closed and equipment removed. Oscar II and Georges supported unemployed workers from their own pocket, which meant that in 1919, almost all of them returned to work at the plants when they reopened. This contributed to the feeling of solidarity which survives to this day, not only uniting Uniroyal employees but spurring them on to greater success.

In 1919, Englebert started trading in Cologne. The high customs tariffs on imported rubber goods prompted some of the twenty four Englebert employees to cheat the authorities, wearing two Englebert raincoats one on top of the other when travelling over the border.

At the end of the nineteen twenties, Georges Englebert had a chance encounter with Matthieu Marquette, an American engineer working for a tire company, when taking lunch at a restaurant. Following this meeting, Englebert proposed building a tire factory in Germany. Marquette accepted the challenge and travelled to Aachen the next day.

After months of wrangling between the city director of Aachen and the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer who would go on to be German chancellor, Aachen was chosen as the site of the new plant. The premises of the former Rothe Erde smelting works was offered for sale at an exceptionally low price, provided that 300 workers were employed for ten years. Cologne was left empty-handed.

At first, only bicycle tires were produced in Aachen until 1931, when car and motorcycle tire manufacture began. Marquette left Aachen in 1940 by which time the Nazis had a firm foothold in the imperial city. Allied bombing destroyed the plant, but the people of Aachen rebuilt it before the invasion. At the end of the war, the Americans occupied the intact parts of the factory and used them as a tank repair workshop. By February 1946, it was in a reasonable condition and therefore production restarted.

Tires became a valuable commodity for trade. One worker said: “In those days, you could coax the devil out of hell with a set of tires.” In the early post-war years, Englebert was the only company in Germany making tires again. Georges’ son, Albert Englebert was appointed co-manager of the firm.

Based on Albert Englebert’s vision, the company was restructured with a focus on European trade, which paved the way to international expansion. Following the construction of the Aachen plant (1929), other factories sprang up in France (1936) and England (1967). Clairoix in France was often the source of inspirational ideas including ways of optimising the performance of manufacturing machines. More plants opened in Luxembourg and Turkey (Adapazari in the early sixties).

In 1948, Englebert provided Belgian towns and cities with something which had been commonplace in other countries for years – city limits signs. Uniroyal paid for the signs and thus made signposting clearer for motorists.

In 1958, Englebert became a major global operator. In partnership with US Rubber, it rose from being the fifth biggest global tire manufacturer to take third place. Its vital stats were: 170,000 tires per day, 70,000 employees in 89 plants and the largest tire testing facilities in the world. The company was not limited to manufacturing tires and was the top international producer of fire hoses, swimming caps and golf balls.

Although tires always accounted for the majority of Uniroyal-Englebert’s production, the company was also well-known for its inventiveness. For example Uniroyal was the brains behind the timing belt, rubber tank and the synthetic material “Royalex”. As regards tire development, Uniroyal employees dreamt up some great ideas including the first computer-operated machine for designing tires, which helped to save valuable development time. They also conceived the nylon overlay for steel belts which is still frequently used today.

1969 saw the advent of the first rain tire. Christened the “rallye 180”, it became a bestseller. Later, the advertisement for these tires would also attract a lot of attention. Uniroyal raked in scores of prestigious prizes for its monkey commercial. They are still associated with the company years later.

In 1970, steel belted tires only accounted for 15% of the replacement market and Uniroyal helped to push this trend forward from the early days. After Michelin, Uniroyal was the first company to use this new technology. Furthermore, Uniroyal significantly improved hologram interferometry used to test for tire damage. Using results from traffic surveys, Uniroyal brought about improvements in traffic safety based on safe tires and advanced fundamental knowledge in the field.

In 1979, Uniroyal Englebert was incorporated within the Continental Group, which is currently the largest car tire manufacturer in Europe. As part of the group, the brand continues to be synonymous with tires which are extra-safe on wet surfaces. It has also added car and 4x4 tires to its product range. In nearly all tests conducted by European trade magazines, tires designed by a dedicated Uniroyal team in the Hanover R&D centre were rated “recommended”. At headquarters in Aachen, both Uniroyal and Continental tires roll off the production lines. The factory in this old imperial city has long been known for manufacturing technically advanced car tires for the OE market and SSR tires with complex production processes. Approximately 1,300 employees work at Continental/Uniroyal in Aachen and the Aachen tire-testing division uses the legendary northern loop of the Nürburgring as a test track.

Back in 1895, the Belgian rubber goods manufacturer Englebert started producing tyres for Continental AG and other companies. After merging with US Rubber in 1958, the company changed its name to Uniroyal Englebert. Uniroyal, the inventor of the rain tyre, has been a European brand within the portfolio of Continental AG in Hanover, Germany, since 1979.

With targeted annual sales of €25 billion for 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of tires, brake systems, systems and components for the powertrain and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics and technical elastomers, the corporation contributes towards enhanced driving safety and protection of the global climate. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. Today, the corporation employs approximately 146,500 at nearly 200 locations in 36 countries.

A quarter of all tires in Europe are manufactured by Continental, the market leader. More than 30 percent of all new European cars leave the factory fitted with Continental tires. The tire divisions are an official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa. For further details, please go to www.ContiSoccerWorld.com.