Company Timeline
Robbins has been manufacturing rubber products since 1921 when founded by Stanley Robbins as a manufacturer of inner tubes. The company, then named Robbins Tire and Rubber Company, was the predecessor of Robbins LLC. Poncet Davis Sr. purchased the company in the early 1940’s. The tubeless tire appeared in 1948 and many suppliers abandoned inner tubes. Robbins continued to enjoy a strong demand for inner tubes until the equipment was sold to Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. in 1995.
In the 1950’s Robbins added tread rubber and curing tubes for the mold cure retreading industry. In the 1960’s precure retreading started to emerge, and in 1971, Robbins added precure tread rubber, precure envelopes and curing tubes to its line of products.
In 1994 Robbins purchased Ultima Rubber Company of Social Circle, Georgia, moved all tread rubber manufacturing to Social Circle, and became a major factor in the mold cure, precure and custom rubber mixing industries. It was during this time that Robbins was introduced to the custom mixing industry. In 1997 Robbins sold the Social Circle plant, but retained the custom mixing customers. Ultima Rubber was sold to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1997.
In 2002 Robbins purchased the assets and technology of Presti Rubber Products, Inc. of New Britain, PA. Presti Rubber Products was a producer and distributor of retreading envelopes for light truck through larger, off-the-road (OTR) envelopes, using compression-molding technology for the light-, medium- and heavy-duty truck tires. The Presti equipment was relocated to the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, facility.
In 2003 Robbins decided to strategically grow the custom mix business, proceeded to purchase state-of-the-art mixing equipment for the Muscle Shoals plant, and purchased a custom mixing plant in Tallapoosa, Georgia in 2004.
In 2007 Grey Mountain Partners of Colorado purchased Robbins. Robbins continues to be a leader in two distinct industries: tire retreading and custom mixing. Robbins sets the standard in the retreading industry for quality products, customer satisfaction and cost per cure. In addition, Robbins continues to enjoy a reputation as a provider of the highest quality elastomer compounds and is a key supply partner to customers all over North America.
