In the first period of its existence, from 1889 to 1900, the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. did not manufacture cycle tyres but purchased the component parts of the tyre from already established rubber manufacturers, including the Byrne Bros. India Rubber Co. Ltd. This company was acquired by the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. in 1898. In addition, the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. was licensing to other manufacturers at home and abroad various patents which included those for beaded edges, valves and weftless fabrics. This was the period of the bicycle boom with its rapidly expanding demand for tyres all over the world. Selling companies were formed in France and Germany in 1893 and in South Africa in 1896. Manu-facture was licensed in Canada in 1894 and in 1898 patent rights were granted to a locally-owned Australian company. A factory at Kobe in Japan first started to operate in 1909.

The manufacture of car tyres was begun in 1900 and a complete range was in production by 1902, but keen competition came from the Continent, where the motor car industry was developing rapidly. It was at this point that Byrne Bros., already established in Birmingham, was reorganised as Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd. Dunlop Pneumatic remained responsible for all selling activities and the control of patents until 1912,when it became entirely a holding company and all trading activities were vested in the Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd. In the period before the first world war the Company increased its share capital several times to meet the heavy plant expenditure involved. It also strengthened its position as regards raw materials and components by the purchase of a wheel manufacturing company at Coventry in 1906 and by the acquisition of rubber estates in Malaya and Ceylon.

Expansion continued during the 1914-18 war, when the Company's manufacturing capacity was devoted mainly to war requirements. A cotton mill in Lancashire was acquired in 1916, and building began on the Fort Dunlop estate of some 300 acres near Birmingham in the same year.