John Cecil Burton and his brother Cecil Hubert formed The Leicester Rubber Company in 1906, to sell imported cycle tyres. The Company's patriotic 'John Bull' trade mark came into force a few years later in 1908. In 1915 the Rubber Company started to manufacture its own bicycle and pram tyres at its Evington Valley Road site in Leicester, and in 1928 they started to mass produce car and motorcycle tyres at the site. The name was changed to the John Bull Rubber Company in 1934, and in 1937 an associated company was formed to manufacture rubber to metal components - Metalastic. In 1955 the John Bull group companies merged, and in 1958 the company became part of the Dunlop Rubber Company.