• 1946

    K. M. Mammen Mappillai started MRF’s journey as a toy balloon  manufacturing unit in a shed in Tiruvottiyur in Madras in 1946.

  • 1949

    By 1949, the company was making latex cast toys, gloves and contraceptives and established its first office at 334, Thambu Chetty Street, Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India.

  • 1952

    MRF’s venture into the manufacture of tread rubber in 1952 put them on the road and into the big leagues.

  • 1956

    By 1956, within 4 years, MRF was the market leader of tread rubber in India with a 50% share.

  • 1961

    1961 proved to be a fruitful year. MRF became a public company, established a technical collaboration with the Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company based in USA and then the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr. K. Kamaraj released the first tyre from MRF’s new pilot plant at Tiruvottiyur.

  • 1963

    Pandit Nehru laid the foundation stone for the Rubber Research Centre at Tiruvottiyur on June 12, 1963, commemorating the inauguration of the Tiruvottiyur factory.

  • 1964

    MRF set up an overseas office at Beirut in 1964, one of India’s first efforts at exporting tyres and to build an identity. The MRF Muscleman was born.

  • 1967

    MRF became the first Indian company to export tyres to the very birthplace of tyre technology, the United States.

  • 1970

    MRF opened its second plant at Kottayam.