In December 2016, Sports Direct announced it had agreed to sell the Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries for £112 million ($137.5 million). Sports Direct International bought Dunlop Slazenger for £40 million in 2004. Slazenger Golf and Maxfli were sold off to reduce debt. To save money, Cinven moved production of Dunlop tennis balls from England to the Philippines. In 1996 Dunlop Slazenger was acquired by the private equity firm Cinven for £330 million. Steffi Graf's sponsorship money was cut so she defected to a Wilson racket. BTR cut marketing spending to just 8 per cent of sales and reduced investment in grass roots sponsorship and research and development. In 1986, the parent company, Dunlop Holdings, was acquired by the industrial company BTR for £549 million.

One year later, the sports businesses were merged to form Dunlop Slazenger. In 1983 the John Letters golf club business was sold back to members of the Letters family. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dunlop was slow to adapt to the new materials that tennis rackets were increasingly being made from, believing that wood would remain the dominant material. The Dunlop 'flying D' logo was introduced in 1960. In 1959 the Slazenger Group was acquired. In 1957 Dunlop acquired the golf club manufacturer John Letters of Scotland. It was sponsored by Dunlop until 1982, and is now known as the British Masters. The Dunlop Masters golf tournament was established in 1946. Headquarters were relocated from Birmingham to Waltham Abbey in Essex. In 1928 the sports division became a subsidiary of Dunlop Rubber named Dunlop Sports. Dunlop opened acquisition discussions with Slazenger in 1927, but without success. In 1925, F A Davis was acquired, which had tennis racket manufacturing expertise. ĭunlop extended into tennis ball manufacture in 1924.

The company introduced the Maxfli golf ball in 1922. The company entered the sporting goods market in 1910, when it began to manufacture rubber golf balls at its base in Birmingham. Dunlop advertisement for its golf balls, 1922ĭunlop was established as a company manufacturing goods from rubber in 1889.

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