Carlisle Companies

Founding and early years

Carlisle Companies Incorporated has a history which began in 1917, when Charles S. Moomy opened Carlisle Tire and Rubber Company in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to sell inner tubes to Montgomery Ward and Company. With thirty employees Carlisle Tire and Rubber Company began producing automobile inner tubes. The Company continued to grow and prosper through the 1920s.

With the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Depression, Carlisle Tire and Rubber, like most other companies during that era, found itself in a desperate struggle to stay afloat. Near the end of the 1930s, in order to avoid bankruptcy, Moomy turned all of his common and preferred stock over to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia which by then, as the largest shareholder, had control of the Company.

The end of the depression and the beginning of World War II forced changes upon the rubber industry. Japan cut off 95% of the natural rubber supply from the East Indies, forcing Carlisle, along with other companies, to seek other sources. In December 1945, Carlisle began to manufacture inner tubes using synthetic rubber.

Carlisle Tire and Rubber was purchased by Pharis Tire and Rubber Company in 1943 for $330,000. But significant losses followed and in 1949, the Board of Directors decided to liquidate the company. All Carlisle stock was distributed to the Pharis stockholders and the company was officially renamed Carlisle Corporation. In 1946, Carlisle purchased a company that produced molded friction products that are used on traditional brake shoes and thus began the starting point of what today is Carlisle Brake & Friction. This also ushered in a new phase for Carlisle as they began growing as a diversified manufacturing company.

Later developments

During the 1950s and 1960s, Carlisle continued to acquire a variety of other companies further diversifying their product mix to include insulated wire and cable, which today is known as Carlisle Interconnect Technologies. On June 1, 1960, Carlisle Companies Inc. became a publicly traded company on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) with a ticker symbol of "CSL." By the end of the 1960s, Carlisle was producing aerospace and electronic products, recreational tires, automotive accessories and other divergent products.

In the 1970s Carlisle pioneered rubber sheet roofing. Using highly engineered formulation and processing techniques to produce synthetic rubber sheets capable of competing with traditional roofing materials. This established Carlisle as a formidable player in both the new and replacement roof markets. This was the genesis of what today is Carlisle Constructions Materials. In the 1980s Carlisle acquired a company that manufactured compression-molded plastic and melamine dinnerware, and later a company that manufactured foodservice equipment and supplies, which was the beginning of what today is Carlisle FoodService Products.

So the beginnings of Carlisle Companies Inc. can be traced to 1917 when the company was dedicated to rubber products for transportation, later to be augmented by the acquisition of several wheel manufacturers in the 1990s to become known as Carlisle Tire & Wheel Company. In 2001, Carlisle purchased a manufacturer of transmission belts for industrial applications and, together with Carlisle Tire & Wheel, was the formed what today is known as Carlisle Transportation Products.

History of acquisitions

Joint venture and equity investments