Dunlop Slazenger was a

sports equipment Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. ...

manufacturing company formed by now-defunct

BTR plc BTR plc was a British multinational industrial conglomerate company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1924, grew strongly by acquisition under Sir Owen Green's leadership, and merged with Siebe plc in 1999 to form BTR ...

by consolidating the various sports brands acquired as part their take-over of

Dunlop Holdings Dunlop Ltd. (formerly Dunlop Rubber) was a British multinational company involved in the manufacture of various natural rubber goods. Its business was founded in 1889 by Harvey du Cros and he involved John Boyd Dunlop who had re-invented and ...

in 1985. The company is most recognised for its involvement in

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

through the

Dunlop Sport Dunlop Sport is a British sports equipment manufacturing company established in 1910 that focuses on racquet sports, more specifically tennis, squash, padel and badminton. Products by Dunlop Sport include rackets, strings, balls, shuttlecocks, ...

Slazenger Slazenger () is a British sports equipment brand owned by the Frasers Group (formerly Sports Direct). The company was established as a sporting goods shop in 1881 by Ralph and Albert Slazenger on London's Cannon Street.J. R. Lowerson, 'Slazenge ...

Maxfli Maxfli is a brand of sports equipment, most recognized for its golf balls, currently owned by Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's purchased the brand from TaylorMade Golf on February 11, 2008; however, the Noodle trademark and all golf ball patents rem ...

and

Carlton Sports Carlton Sports is a British sports equipment brand, focused on badminton and table tennis. Originally established in 1946, Carlton is currently part of the Frasers Group (formerly, "Sports Direct International"). Badminton equipment by Carlton in ...

brands.

Overview

In 1996 the company was sold in a management buyout backed by

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...

Cinven Cinven is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States based corporat ...

. This arrangement did not have a successful existence, and Dunlop Slazenger soon found itself being run by the banks, led by

The Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) ...

. Under the banks management, TaylorMade-adidas Golf took up their option to purchase the Maxfli golf brand in 2004, following a previous licensing arrangement, and the rights to Slazenger Golf in North America were sold to the Slazenger Golf Products Company. The remainder of Dunlop Slazenger was eventually sold to

Sports Direct Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading pre ...

for £40 million in 2004. Since then Dunlop, Slazenger and other brands have been licensed or sold to other companies, notably

being sold to

Sumitomo Rubber Industries is a global tire and rubber company based in Japan. It is part of the Sumitomo Group. The company makes a wide range of rubber based products, including automobile tires, golf balls and tennis balls. Sumitomo brands include Dunlop Tyres (in cer ...

(SRI), a company of

Sumitomo Group The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period. History The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Masa ...

, for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

137.5 million in 2016–17.

References

{{Frasers Group Sporting goods manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Sports equipment Sports equipment makers