Bandag Milestones
December 1957: Roy Carver gains North
American rights to the Bandag system from Bernard Anton Nowak
in Darmstadt, Germany. The name Bandag comes from Nowak’s
initials (BAN); D is for Darmstadt, and AG is German for
incorporated.
June 1958: Barely six months after acquiring
the North American rights, Carver establishes his first dealer
franchise.
June 1959: Ambrosiani Brothers, San Juan,
Puerto Rico, is our first international franchised dealership.
June 1959: Bandag signs on its first European
dealer, A.B. Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
January 1961: Our first tread press is
installed at Plant 2. Tread is pressed in 30-foot lengths,
6 pieces at a time. This new process requires more capital;
Carver flies to dealerships and raises $50,000. The first
tread designs were Highway, Cross Bar, and HiSpeed.
January 1963: Roy Carver develops the idea
of a rubber curing envelope, the first key idea introduced
by Bandag. It solves many curing problems and eliminates
heavy, expensive metal curing bands.
January 1968: Bandag stock is first offered
to public at $12 per share.
January 1971: The R&D Center and warehouse
in Progress Park is completed.
January 1972: The company is listed on
the New York Stock Exchange.
January 1973: Bob Seivert and Bill Loughran
put Bandag retreads to test at the Baja 500. This is the
first time Bandag retreads are used for off-road racing;
the spare tire never touches the ground.
January 1974: For the first time in company
history, Bandag is listed on the 1974 Fortune magazine
list of top 1,000 U.S. industrial corporations. 1973 sales
of $95 million places Bandag at 909th on the list.
May 1975: Groundbreaking ceremony for the
Bandag World Headquarters in Muscatine, Iowa.
December 1978: Bandag has 859 dealerships
and is franchised in 51 countries.
April 1979: Bandag introduces the NDI (Non-Destructive
Inspection) Tire Casing Analyzer, which uses ultrasonic sound
waves to detect hidden flaws in tire casings.
June 1981: Roy J. Carver dies in Marbella,
Spain, after suffering a sudden heart attack. Martin G. Carver
is named Chairman of the Board, Bandag, Inc.
May 1982: Martin G. Carver is named Chairman
of the Board and CEO.
December 1983: The seven-year-old, 100,000-square-foot
Griffin tread plant is destroyed by fire, with more than
$13 million in damages. The plant was then rebuilt and resumed
production in October 1984.
February 1989: Bandag is recognized as
one of the “Great Companies of the ‘90’s” by Financial
World magazine, which reviewed the strategies and tactics
of more than 3,000 companies before choosing the 30 firms
it believed most likely to thrive and prosper in the coming
decade. The listing puts Bandag in the company of Ford, Chrysler,
IBM, AT&T, MCI, Johnson & Johnson, Apple and American
Express.
May 1991: Bandag is placed on the Fortune
500 annual list of the largest industrial companies in the
United States.
January 1994: Bandag is granted a 17-year
U.S. product patent for the Eclipse System tread. The patent
award is the culmination of a project that began nearly six
years ago.
August 1995: The August issue of The
Environmental Benchmarker lists Bandag as one of the
top-performing environmental stocks. “It is an established
and substantial, internally diversified firm which recycles
and retreads tires, thus extending life and minimizing
the increasingly significant problem of waste tires. The
company has the distinction of being the number one performer
in our first attempt to rate environmental companies.”
August 1996: Bandag introduces application-specific
tire products, which provide truckers the best of both worlds:
best-in-class tire performance plus the economics of retreading.
April 1999: Bandag opens its new Learning
Center in Muscatine, Iowa.
February 2002: Bandag creates a Fleet Executive
Symposium to explore leading-edge business concepts with
transportation executives.
February 2004: Bandag acquires Speedco,
the leading provider of on-highway PM services for trucks.
January 2005: Bandag creates new Vision for company. Vision: “We will be the leading provider of premium tire management and vehicle maintenance solutions to the transportation industry.“
Bandag launches new product line called Continuum to offer procured retreading materials for off-the-road (OTR) market.
May 2005: Bandag opens a vehicle services development center and begins to increase its lineup of services, making it a vehicle-centric service provider to its fleet customers.
July 2005: Bandag Bullet, world's fastest truck from Australia, sets world record for conventionally powered truck, achieving average speed of 182.14 kph over one kilometer from standing start.
October 2005: Bandag acquires Maintenance IO, consulting firm specializing in showing fleets how to create maintenance processes that improve efficiency and cost management abilities.
December 2005: Bandag's sales: $914,640,000.
March 2006: Speedco sponsors tribute to American Trucker at the Mid America Truck Show in Kentucky and unveils Speedco Chopper built by Orange County Choppers.
April 2006: Bandag acquires Trucklube 1, a leading provider of truck repair and maintenance services.
John McErlane named vice president of North America Operations and Mark Winkler named vice president of Vehicle Services reporting to Marty Carver, chairman and CEO.
June 2006: Bandag closes Shawinigan Plant in Quebec; this plant was opened in 1967 and was company's first tread rubber plant outside Muscatine.
December 2006: Bandag and tire maker Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc., jointly announce that they have entered a merger agreement by which Bridgestone will buy Bandag for $1.05 billion in cash, making Bandag a wholly owned subsidiary. Bridgestone Americas, a subsidiary of Japan-based Bridgestone Corp., will pay $50.75 per share for Bandag, a 13 percent premium to the company's closing stock price on the day of the announcement. The Bandag board of directors unanimously approves the sale, which is expected to close by the second quarter of 2007. The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
April 2007: Bandag shareholders approve the sale of Bandag, Incorporated to Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.
June 2007: Bandag begins operating as Bridgestone Bandag, LLC, but continues to operate as “Bandag“ in the marketplace. A big “Day One“ celebration takes place in Muscatine, Iowa, attended by all local Bandag employees, plus executives from Bridgestone Americas including Mark Emkes, chairman and CEO of BSA. Despite a terrible tornado that struck Muscatine during the festivities, the celebration proceeded as planned, culminating with Martin Carver turning over the key to the Bandag Bandit to new President, chairman and CEO, Saul Solomon.
Speedco observes grand opening of its 50th store, in Whiteland, Indiana.
|
