General Tire and Rubber Company

The General Tire and Rubber Company is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles.

General Tire was founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio, by William F. O'Neil. The company later diversified into a conglomerate with holdings in tires, rubber compounds, rocketry and aeronautics, entertainment and news, and real estate.

The tire and rubber division was sold to Germany's Continental in 1987, and is now known as Continental Tire North America, Inc. The rocketry business was kept and expanded and after a couple company name changes, the parent company is now Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings.

William O'Neil had a Firestone franchise in Kansas City. He started a small manufacturing facility for tire repair products, and called it Western Tire and Rubber.

As Firestone grew, it sold additional franchises, reducing the territories of its earlier franchisees. Dissatisfied, O'Neil decided to compete with Firestone instead, using the expertise he had gained with Western. He went into partnership with his father, a department store owner in Akron, and formed General Tire in 1915 using $200,000 in capital borrowed from the store. The O'Neils hired away some Firestone managers.

Initially, they focused on repair materials, as with Western Tire, but in 1916 they expanded into tire manufacturing, focusing on high-end products. Early products included:

Despite the difficult business climate of World War I, in 1917, O'Neil established a dealership network and began an advertising campaign. By 1930, the company had 14 retail stores and about 1.8% of the tire market. During the depression, as competitors failed, General bought out Yale Tire and Rubber, and India Tire and Rubber. By 1933, it had increased market share to 2.7%. This was a relatively large number, considering that the company limited its product line.

Because the depression was particularly hard on manufacturing, General bought several Ohio radio stations on which it advertised. In 1943, General Tire diversified the core business strategy, purchasing the Yankee Network and the radio stations it owned from Boston's Shepard Stores, Inc. Thomas F. O'Neil, son of the founder William F. O'Neil, served as Yankee's chairman with Shepard's John Shepard III serving as president.

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