The world of tire manufacturers is a big one. However, with so few conglomerates and so many subsidiaries, it can be confusing figuring out who owns what.
Picking the right tires for your car or truck can be a tricky task, not least because there are so many different tire models on the market to choose from, hailing from a diverse range of brands. However, not all of these brands are quite as they seem. Like any other area of the automotive industry, tiremaking companies go through changes of ownership on a regular basis, with some becoming subsidiaries of other, larger companies while others remain independent.
Keeping up with exactly which companies own which brands isn’t easy. However, if you’ve ever stared at the racks of tires in a shop and wondered exactly who you’re giving your money to when you buy them, then wonder no more. We’ve gone digging through the paperwork to uncover exactly who owns each tire brand, as well as recapping the history of each brand to illustrate how it ended up under its current ownership.Michelin
While technically Lego is the world’s largest tire maker by volume, Michelin is the world’s largest producer of regular-sized vehicle tires. The company was originally founded in France in 1889, and in 1891 it made history by producing the first detachable bicycle tire. Four years later, Michelin designed the first air-filled car tire, and by 1898, the famous Michelin Man logo had been created. Ever since, Michelin has remained at the forefront of tire technology, with its tire models receiving consistent praise from owners and reviewers alike.
We ranked Michelin the best major tire brand on the market, partly thanks to that consistent praise and partly because of its wide range of tire models. Michelin is a publicly traded company today, with a primary listing on the Paris Stock Exchange. It’s mostly owned by a mix of institutional investors, retail investors, and mutual funds. Mage Invest, the holding company owned by members of the founding Michelin family, also owns a 4.29% stake in the business.Pirelli
Pirelli is one of the oldest tire companies still in existence. Founded in 1872, it originally manufactured a variety of rubber items, including parts for horse-drawn carriages, and expanded into car tire production in 1901. Pirelli quickly grew its manufacturing capacity, expanding beyond its home country of Italy to open plants in Spain, the U.K., and Argentina. By 1929, Pirelli also had a manufacturing plant in Brazil.
Over the following decades, Pirelli kept up its breathless pace of expansion, developing new tire lines, entering new markets, and buying up a variety of businesses, some tire-related and some completely unrelated. It even tried to acquire rival tire giant Continental at the start of the ’90s, but was ultimately unsuccessful. After a long period of rapid acquisitions, Pirelli eventually reversed course and trimmed down its business operations. It sold off its unrelated business operations — including, strangely enough, a broadband ISP division — in 2010, and went back to being solely a tire maker.
Today, Pirelli is a publicly traded company with around 35.6% of its shares owned by institutional and retail investors. According to the latest company documents, Italian investment firm Camfin also owns a 27.4% stake in the company, while the Chinese state-owned Sinochem Group holds the largest individual stake in Pirelli, at 37%.Yokohama
The Yokohama tire brand can trace its history back to 1917, when it was founded as a joint venture between the Japanese Yokohama Electric Cable Manufacturing Company and the American BFGoodrich Company. Its first plant was completed in 1920 and it immediately began producing tires alongside a variety of other rubber products. Yokohama had plenty of big setbacks in its early days: in 1923, just three years after it opened, the brand’s factory was destroyed by an earthquake. The company built a new plant that opened in 1929, only for it to be destroyed again during a wartime raid in 1945.
After every seemingly existential threat, the company bounced back — no pun intended — stronger than before, and today it manufactures tires in a variety of locations across the globe. In 2024, the brand achieved record sales revenue, bringing in more than 1 trillion yen (around $6.7 billion) in earnings for the first time. Yokohama Rubber Co Ltd remains a publicly traded, independent company, with most of its shares owned by various Japanese and American asset management companies and mutual funds.Goodyear
An independent company with a very long list of subsidiaries, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co has been around since 1898. Like many modern tiremaking companies, Goodyear initially made a variety of rubber products before later specializing in vehicle tires as the automobile surged in popularity throughout the 20th century. It’s another firm that’s owned primarily by various asset management groups and funds.
The Goodyear brand takes its name from inventor Charles Goodyear, who invented vulcanized rubber in 1839. However, Goodyear himself was not related to the company in any way — in fact, he died in 1860, leaving behind a mountain of debt thanks to a failed business venture. Instead, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co was founded by two brothers, Frank and Charley Seiberling, with Frank credited with creating the brand’s famous wingfoot logo. That logo can famously be seen on Goodyear’s fleet of blimps, which were first introduced as marketing tools in 1925, having been originally designed for military use in the First World War.BFGoodrich
Many of America’s biggest tire brands were founded in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear’s first factory was located in Akron, but by the time it was in business, BFGoodrich had already been operating in the city for almost 30 years. BFGoodrich first opened its doors in 1870, making it one of the oldest tire brands around today. It produced the first pneumatic car tires in America in 1896, eventually expanding its product range from rubber-based products into plastic products and various other chemicals. The company can also take credit for manufacturing the first space suits for American astronauts.
