About Continental Tyres

Continental Tyres offer award-winning premium tyres with your safety as their highest priority. Founded in Hanover, Germany in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transport. Continental currently employs more than 235,000 people in 61 countries.

Over the years Continental has worked more and more closely with car manufacturers to provide the best possible tyres in terms of safety and performance. When you purchase a new car the tyres haven’t been randomly selected, they have been carefully picked based on precise criteria and are known as original equipment (OE). Continental are a big player in the OE market with one in every three new cars in Europe leaving the factory fitted with their tyres, so if the car manufacturers trust them then so can you.

Continental's timeline of significant dates

• 1871: Continental is founded, manufacturing soft rubber products, rubberised fabrics and solid tyres for carriages and bicycles.

• 1892: Continental become first German company to manufacture pneumatic tyres for bicycles

• 1900: Continental balloon material is used to seal the gas bags for the LZ 1 German airship

• 1901: First Daimler-produced car to be called Mercedes, racing on Continental pneumatic tyres is victorious in the Nice Salon-Nice Car race

• 1904: First automobile tyre with patterned tread presented by Continental

• 1905: Continental produces anti-skid tyres

• 1908: Invention of the innovative detachable rims for sedans

• 1921: 50th Anniversary is accompanied by launch of cord tyre to market.

• 1936: Synthetic rubber introduced to tyre manufacturing process

• 1960: Commencement of the mass production of radial tyres

• 1967: Opening of the Contidrom Tyre Testing Facility

• 1972: Launch of studless Conti-Contact winter tyre

• 1979: Continental compete takeover of Uniroyal Inc.

• 1985: Continental compete takeover of Austrian company Semperit

• 1991: Continental first manufacturer to launch environmentally friendly passenger car

• 1997: Continental releases ISAD (Integrated Starter Alternator Damper) that helps to substantially reduce fuel consumption and emissions

• 2003: Unveiling of ContiSportContact 2 Vmax, first road tyre approved for speeds of up to 223 mp/h

• 2006: Continental acquires Motorola increasing activities in telematics

• 2010: Launch of ContiSportContact 5 P, a high-performance summer tyre specifically designed for custom vehicles and sports cars

• 2014: Continental Global workforce exceeds 189,100 for the first time with annual sales reaching £30.7bn