MRF Tyres

Origin and Expansion

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. It is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Madras Rubber Factory (MRF) produces tyres, tubes, conveyor belts, treads, toys and paints.

Starting as a toy balloon maker, the company soon forayed into the tread rubber domain in 1952. It first got into a tie-up with Ohio-based Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company in the USA. With its growing popularity and manifold expansion, MRF went public in 1961. In 1964, it opened a new office in Beirut Lebanon for export and the current logo of Muscleman was also etched.

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 1979, Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company was completely bought and renamed MRF Ltd. Among its moments of pride is supplying MRF tyres to India’s highly successful Maruti 800. It joined hands with Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker for manufacturing conveyor and elevator belts. In 2004, it forayed into manufacturing Go-kart and rally tyres along with two-wheeler and three-wheeler automobiles. It has been contributing to motorsports by MRF Racing and cricket by running MRF Pace Foundation.

The average net profit of MRF for the last three financial years stood at Rs 1,560.89 crore.

Achievements

MRF has been a frontrunner in the race of awards and recognitions as well. The list of awards is exhaustive, we are listing the prominent ones.

• MRF ranked highest in customer satisfaction by the JD Power Award for the record 13th time in 2018.
• It won the All India Rubber Industries Association's (AIRIA) award for the ‘Highest Export Awards (Auto Tyre Sector)'.
• It got the 'Top Export Award' from the Chemicals & Allied Products Export Promotion Council (CAPEXIL) in 2009–10.
• It makes it to the top 50 companies of Forbes India’s Super 50 in 2015.
• In 2017, MRF improved its rankings and was featured in Super 30 companies in India by Forbes.
• MRF was ranked 48th among India's 75 most trusted brands according to the 2018 Brandz, a study conducted by Kantar Millward Brown-WPP in 2018. The only tyre brand to feature in this list.
• In 2018, MRF Tractor Tyre was rated No. 1 on JD Power customer satisfaction index.
• MRF’s Perfinza product earned the Product of the year award in Car India Awards 2018.
• It has got a unique Silver award of Ford World Excellence Award to its name. The only Indian company to achieve it.
• In 2006, MRF was adjudged the ‘Most Trusted’ tyre company by TNS in the 2006 global CSR survey.

Cricket At Heart

MRF has been quite active in promoting sports as well. It came with the idea of floating balloons with high definition cameras over the cricket grounds in IPL 2010. It was also a global partner of ICC (International Cricket Council) for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

MRF Pace Foundation

To nurture fast bowlers in the country, MRF started the MRF Pace Foundation in 1987 with former pace legend Dennis Lillee in Chennai. It has helped create some of the finest bowlers in international cricket such as Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Glen McGrath, Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Munaf Patel and more.

Sponsorships

MRF is all over cricket. It has been the bat sponsor for numerous world-class players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and more.

Presence in Motor Sports

The Madras Rubber Factory has been endorsing and participating in various motorsports events such as racking, rallying, karting, etc. In the international championships, MRF karting tyres are a preferred choice. Its rallying team has won the prestigious FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship not once but thrice. MRF made its own Formula 3 car in 1997 in collaboration with Maruti.

Popular tyres from MRF

There is an array of tyres under the MRF brand. It manufactures tyres for two-wheelers, cars, trucks, OTR, LCV, Pickup, trucks and farm vehicles.

Popular Tyres From MRF

Here are popular tyres in each category from MRF.

Cars/SUV tyres:

MRF Perfinza, ZLX, Wanderer Sport, ZLO, ZVTV, ZWYDE, ZCT, Markus, Muscle Master, ZV2K, ZGP and others.

Bike/Scooter tyres:

MRF REVZ, MOTO D, Zapper, RIB, Meteor, Nylogrip Ezeeride, MOGrip, Masseter and others.

Truck tyres:

Steel muscle, M-77, Super Lug, The Lug-Plus, MuscleROK, Steel MuscleROK

OTR tyres:

MRF MuscleROK-Earthmovers, MuscleROK-Graders, MuscleROK-Industrial, MuscleROK-Smooth, MuscleROK-Roadtrac, MuscleROK-Loaders and Sandgrip.

Farm tyres:

Shakti Super, Shakti Life, Tractor Trailer – 707, Shakti HR Lug, Krishi, Pahalwan, Fork Lift Industrial (Pneumatic & Solid), Power Tiller (Shakti) and 3-RIB.

MRF manufacturing plants across India

The India’s largest tyre maker has 10 tyre manufacturing facilities in the country.

1. Kottayam Plant in Kerala
2. Puducherry Plant
3. Goa Plant
4. Trichi Radial Plant in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
5. Trichi Bias Plant in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
6. Arakonam Plant in Tamil Nadu
7. Tiruvottiyur Plant in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
8. Medak Plant in Telangana
9. Ankenpally Plant in Telangana
10. Dahej Plant in Gujarat

MRF Sales Network

MRF is exporting tyres to 65 countries with 10 facilities spread across an area of 450 acres along with 5500 plus dealer network and 130 offices. Among the dealerships, two-thirds of them are exclusive outlets.

MRF CSR Activities

MRF has been spending on the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity generously. Last year, it spent close to Rs 66.35 crores. The budget was focussed on vocational skills, healthcare, education, rural development, provide safe drinking water, sports training, skill development, environment protection and measures for reducing inequalities faced by economically & socially backward groups.