Who was Mammen Mappilla, sold balloons, slept on floor to build Rs 35,000 crore company? Check Kohli, Sachin connection

The story of MRF started in 1946 when its founder K. M Mammen Mappillai used to sell balloons on streets. Mammen Mappillai had a small company where he used to produce balloons and then he himself sold them street by street. At that time, even he would not have thought that one day he would become the owner of MRF (Madras Rubber Factory), one of largest tyre manufacturing companies in the world.

Mammen Mappillai’s father was the owner of a bank as well as a newspaper but all his assets were seized by then princely state of Travencore. MM was studying at at Madras Christian College at that time when hi father was arrested and kept in prison for two years. After the arrest of his father, MM started sleeping on the floors of St. Thomas’s Hall. Mammen survived the hardship and started making and selling toy balloons after graduation.

In 1952, MM came to know that a foreign company is supplying trade rubber to a retreading plant in India. Retreading refers to the process of making old tyres reusable and the tread is the upper part of the rubber tyre that makes contact with the ground. Mammen Mappillai thought that he can do this work too.

MM put all the wealth he had made by selling balloons into this business. It was a big risk but he got tremendous results too. Interestingly, MRF was the only Indian company that was manufacturing tread rubber and all other companies in this sector were foreign at that time. Within 4 years, MRF's market share reached 50% and this became the reason behind the departure of many international companies from India. Mammen did not stop here and decided to get into tyre manufacturing business.

In 1961, Mammen set up a factory to manufacture tyres. However, the company was not technically strong enough to manufacture tyres and that’s why MRF entered into a partnership with the American company Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company. In the same year, the company also brought its IPO in the Madras Stock Exchange. At that time domestic industries also used to get strong support from the government. MRF started applying for government tenders and by 1963, MRF had become a well-known name.

Mammen had understood one thing that right now he is not being able to get is MRF tyre fitted in vehicles at the time of manufacturing the vehicles as the company is facing stiff competition from brands like Dunlop, Goodyear. That's when he decided to launch MRF tyres directly in the market. Mammen decided to go on a marketing blitz and hired well-known ad guru late Alyque Padamsee for this purpose.

After a lot of research, the MRF ‘Muscleman’ was born which has become the epitome of strength and durable tyres. The company targeted cricket bats, among other methods, for advertising. From Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara to Virat Kohli became its brand ambassador and MRF became very popular among children. When these children grew up, they knew that MRF tyres were the best for them.

The revenue of MRF is Rs 19,633.7 crores (US$2.5 billion, 2022). The company has total assets of Rs 16,442 crores and it has around 18,000 employees. MRF has a market capitalisation of around Rs 36,000 crore.