It joined hands with Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker for manufacturing conveyor and elevator belts. Among its moments of pride is supplying MRF tyres to India’s highly successful Maruti 800. In 1979, Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company was completely bought and renamed MRF Ltd. Over the course of time, it entered into strategic partnerships with BF Goodrich and Marangoni TRS SPA, Italy to gain a technological edge in manufacturing tyres. In 1964, it opened a new office in Beirut Lebanon for export and the current logo of Muscleman was also etched. With its growing popularity and manifold expansion, MRF went public in 1961. It first got into a tie-up with Ohio-based Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company in the USA. Starting as a toy balloon maker, the company soon forayed into the tread rubber domain in 1952. The Madras Rubber Factory (MRF) produces tyres, tubes, conveyor belts, treads, toys and paints. It is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The largest manufacturer of tyres in India and the sixth-largest in the world, MRF was established in 1946 by K M Mammen Mappillai as a small toy ballon unit.
