150 years: Pirelli proud protagonist of present

MILAN — The Pirelli reputation is as much about art and culture as it is about making high-performance tires, and at 150 years old, the Italian company has not lost its sense of style.

The year-long sesquicentennial celebration features, among other things, a theatrical stage presentation of the company's history; commemorative coins and a stamp; a graphic novel; and a new ad campaign based on an old theme: "Power is nothing without control."

Marco Tronchetti Provera, executive vice chairman and CEO of Pirelli & C. S.p.A., said the pomp of the celebration was by design; "A thank you to all the 30,000 people who every day at Pirelli build our history," he said. The company has plans for celebratory moments in the 12 countries where it manufactures tires and throughout the world with a number of initiatives through its motorsports sponsorships.

"Anticipating change is what Pirelli has done for 150 years thanks to the solidity of its entrepreneurial culture and ability to be a protagonist of the present," Tronchetti Provera said.

"These things have allowed us to reach this milestone with a brand established around the world. We felt it important to share this story with our city, our country and all the international groups and communities that we work with every day."

During a conference call with media on Jan. 28 Tronchetti Provera expressed optimism for the future of the company and the tire industry. He said the company is finding a balance among supply chain issues, computer-chip shortages and raw-material prices.

Pirelli has seen the tire market recover in the last year, and Tronchetti Provera said he believes the recovery will continue throughout 2022. He also noted a belief that the original equipment tire market — suffering from the chip shortage in automotive manufacturing — will begin to recover in the second half of the year.

Pirelli, ranked by Tire Business as the seventh largest tire maker in the world based on 2020 tire sales nearly $5 billion, has found a distinct place among the world's tire makers with a style all of its own. The company has registered more than 6,700 patents in 150 years.

Giovanni Battista Pirelli founded the company on Jan. 28, 1872, to produce rubber products, first insulators for telegraph and cable lines then to toys, raincoats, and bicycle and wagon tires. Pirelli started making car tires in 1901 at its Milan, Italy, plant.

The company expanded over the next 20 years, opening plants in Barcelona, Spain (1902); Southampton, England (1903); Buenos Aires, Argentina (1917); Manresa, Spain (1924); and Burton-on-Trent, England (1928).

Today, the Milan-based company has 19 factories in 12 countries: Argentina, Brazil (3), China (3), Germany, Indonesia, Italy (2), Mexico, Romania, Russia (2), Turkey, United Kingdom (2), and the U.S.

The company entered the U.S. seriously in 1988 with the acquisition of Armstrong Tire Co. after losing out to Bridgestone Corp. in a bidding battle for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. It opened its sole U.S. plant, in Rome, Ga., in 2002 and added a factory in Silao, Mexico, in 2012.

Founder Giovanni Pirelli died in 1932 and was succeeded by his son Alberto, who was a key figure for the company through the rise and fall of fascism and before and after World War II.

Leading up to 1932, Alberto Pirelli had held many economic advisory roles, including president of the International Chamber of Commerce, where he was an adviser to Benito Mussolini. Pirelli was a member of the National Council of Corporations and a commissioner of the General Fascist Confederation of Industries.

The Pirelli plants in Italy were destroyed during the war, but the company was able to rebuild with funds from the U.S. Marshall Plan. (Italy was on the side of the Allies when the war ended.)

Post-war, Pirelli continued to grow, producing a number of rubber products for consumers around the world. The company opened its iconic 32-story building in Milan, Pirellone, in 1958.

The iconic Pirelli Calendar was created in the 1960s to draw attention to the brand. Over the years it has featured a number of famous photographers.

The 2022 calendar — which includes celebrities such as Cher, Rita Ora and Iggy Pop — was photographed by musician Bryan Adams, who featured himself for December.

At the launch of the calendar, Pirelli also unveiled a 150th anniversary logo.

"Pirelli was always in dialogue with artists and intellectuals to keep an eye on society, its evolution and changing customs," the company said.

The company said it has long placed on emphasis on style since the iconic elongated "P" that looks as if it was "rubber stretching" was created. That mentality has continued through its calendar, design and internal publishings, as well as numerous sponsorships and partnerships.

Motorsports has long been a staple of the Pirelli brand. Alberto Pirelli's 1971 New York Times obituary noted his love for racing and adventure.

"In Paris (in 1908), he became the first Italian to ride in an airplane, flying for 10 minutes at a height of 30 feet with Orville Wright at the controls," the Times wrote.

When he joined his father's business, he promised to organize a 10,000-mile race from "Peking" to Paris.

In the Beijing-Paris race of 1907, Prince Scipione Borghese, driving an Italia equipped with Pirelli tires, finished 20 days ahead of the team in second place.

Motorsports, the company said, is "a great success that transforms mobility into innovation and spectacle, and competitions into open-air laboratories."

Today Pirelli is present in more than 350 motorsports series and venues.

In the early 1990s, Pirelli faced corporate and financial reorganization following the recession and a failed merger with Continental A.G.

Pirelli once again grew in the late 1990s but has gone through a number of mergers and acquisitions that separated parts of the rubber business over the last 20 years. Today, Pirelli is solely a tire maker and is majority owned by China's state-owned China National Chemical Corp. (Chem China).

Leading up to Pirelli's sesquicentennial presentation at Milan's Piccolo Teatro theatre, a countdown began in Rio De Janeiro on Jan. 24 and continued with the projection of the logo and congratulations across the Citigroup Tower in Shanghai, a 3D animation on the Times Square Nasdaq Tower in New York and on Palazzo Venezia in Milan.

The 3D video showed a tire rolling down an incline and stopping before shooting off the screen, which the company said "perfectly encapsulating Pirelli's payoff 'Power is nothing without control.'

"Thanks to technology and social media, individuals have enormous power, but in a moment they can lose control and chaos ensues," the company said of its tagline, originally used in the 1990s.

"More than ever, one needs to be aware that power needs control, in life and not only on the road."

The 150th birthday will be celebrated, as well, with a special issue of World, the company magazine that since 1994 continues the heritage of the Rivista Pirelli that was published from 1948-72.

"The issue proposes 26 words, one for each letter of the alphabet, chosen for their meaning, force and capacity to describe Pirelli," the company said. "Each word, thanks to the contribution of illustrators, authors, novelists and essayists, is explored in an original way."

Pirelli has updated its graphic novel, a video that revisits the history, touching on the most significant moments.

Italy's Ministry of the Economy and Finance and the State Mint and Printworks presented a new stamp collection that, as part of the series "Eccellenza Italiane," will include a set of three celebratory coins in gold and silver dedicated to Pirelli.

Commemorative projects and events will continue in 2022 through sports sponsorships, beginning with the world of Formula 1, institutional appointments, cultural events and new product launches.

Among the main projects is the publication of the book "Thinking Ahead. Pirelli: 150 Years of Industry, Innovation and Culture" planned for the spring. The editorial project will be featured on the pirellibuildsthefuture.org site.