bought The Colorado Tire and Leather Company in 1911 for $3,500, little did he know his small shop in Denver would evolve into a leading rubber products company. Colorado Tire and Leather made a single product, the Durable Tread, a steel-studded band of leather that motorists fastened to their flimsy car tires to extend their mileage. From this modest beginning Gates Corporation, formerly known as
The Gates Rubber Company, has grown into one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial and automotive belts and hoses, plus a host of related products. The company charted the course for its future success in 1917 when John Gates, Charles' brother, invented the rubber and fabric V-belt. It was a huge success and within a decade Gates established itself as the world's largest manufacturer of V-belts, a title it still holds today. In the years that followed the company aggressively expanded its product line. Today, Gates serves customers in the industrial and automotive markets with a full line of belt and hose products. Gates is organized into three product groups -- Worldwide Power Transmission, Worldwide Automotive Hoses, and Worldwide Hydraulic and Industrial Hose & Connectors. The worldwide product groups are responsible for product development, manufacturing, product globalization and manufacturing capacity and utilization. Sales, marketing and distribution activities are handled by Gates Europe, Gates Asia/Pacific Operations, and The Americas, which includes North America, South America and the Caribbean. The company sells its products directly to automotive and industrial original equipment manufacturers and through a network of 150,000 distributors, jobbers and dealers worldwide. In 1996, Gates became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tomkins Ltd., ending 85 years of ownership by the Gates family. At the time of the transaction, Gates was the largest non-tire rubber company in the world. is a world class global engineering and manufacturing group with market and technical leadership across two businesses: Industrial & Automotive and Building Products.
