A young entrepreneur, K. M. Mammen Mappillai, opened a small toy balloon manufacturing unit in a shed at Tiruvottiyur, Madras (now Chennai).  |
Although the factory was just a small shed without any machines, a variety of products, ranging from balloons and latex-cast squeaking toys to industrial gloves and contraceptives, were produced.  |
During this time, MRF established its first office at 334, Thambu Chetty Street, Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India.  |
MRF ventured into the manufacture of tread rubber. And with that, the first machine, a rubber mill, was installed at the factory. This step into tread-rubber manufacture was later to catapult MRF into a league that few had imagined possible.  |
The quality of the product manufactured was of such a high standard that by the close of 1956, MRF had become the market leader with a 50% share of the tread-rubber market in India. So effective was MRF's hold on the market, that the large multinationals had no other option but to gradually withdraw from the tread rubber business in India.  |
With the success achieved in tread rubber, MRF entered into the manufacture of tyres. MRF established a technical collaboration with the Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company of USA. Around the same time, it also became a public company.  |
It set up a pilot plant for tyre manufacture at Tiruvottiyur, Madras (now Chennai). The Chief Minister of Madras Mr. K. Kamaraj released the first tyre from the tyre plant.  |
On June 12, 1963, India's first Prime Minister, Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the Rubber Research Centre at Tiruvottiyur to commemorate the inauguration of the Tiruvottiyur factory.  |
With the commissioning of the main plant in 1964, MRF also made progress in the export of tyres. An overseas office at Beirut (Lebanon) was established to develop the export market, and it was amongst India's very first efforts on tyre exports. This year also marked the birth of the now famous MRF Muscleman.  |
