Carlisle Companies - Company History

Company History

Carlisle Companies Incorporated 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 working ten-hour days, 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 Company was purchased in 1943 by Pharis Tire and Rubber Company 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. During the 1950s and 1960s Carlisle began to acquire a variety of other companies diversifying their product mix to include roofing materials, insulated wire and baby food jar sealant rings. By the end of the 1960s, Carlisle was producing aerospace and electronic products, recreational tires, automotive accessories and brake linings as well as other divergent products.