Who Is Mammen Mappillai? Meet The Man behind MRF Tyres That Hit Milestone of Rs 1 lakh per share, With Revenue Of Rs 23,000 Crore

New Delhi: Leading tyremaker MRF Ltd on Tuesday became the first stock on the Indian bourses to cross the Rs 1 lakh per share mark milestone. MRF Scrip grew over 1 percent to hit its all-time high of Rs 1 lakh per share. Intra-day, the shares rose further by 1.48 percent to Rs 1,00,439.95 apiece on National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Rs 1,00,300 apiece on BSE.

However, the feat was not gained in one day. In today's success story, we shall know about Mammen Mappillai, the man behind the Indian multinational tyre manufacturing company Madras Rubber Factory, commonly known as MRF, who beat all the odds to build a Rs 23,000 crores empire.

Meet Mammen Mappillai, Who Built MRF Tyres, That Today Has Revenue Of Rs 23,000 Crore

K M Mammen Mapillai was born in 1922. Mammen Mapillai's  father was the owner of a newspaper and a bank. However nothing was left for the family when his father was put in jail for two years by the princely kingdom of Travancore as all of their possessions were seized. After his father's detention, KM had to sleep on the floorboards of St. Thomas' Hall in college.

MRF was founded by KM Mammen Mappillai in 1946 as a toy balloon manufacturing facility in a shed at Tiruvottiyur, Madras. MRF’s venture into the manufacture of tread rubber in 1952 and by 1956 MRF was the market leader of tread rubber in India with a 50% share.

The "tread rubber," that MRF produced, could prolong the life of a used tyre, became an instant hit in the country. Very soon, MRF became the only Indian-owned company producing this type of tread rubber, putting them in competition with multinational companies operating in India. The success of MRF at that time was such big that the company quickly rose to the top of the market with a 50% share. MRF's market dominance consequently left big MNC's with no choice but to leave that line of work.

In 1961, his tyre factory was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister – Pandit Nehru and the comany also launched its IPO and debuted in the Indian stock markets in the same year.

MRF has had several feathers in its cap ever since. Mammen Mapillai was recipient of Padmashri in 1992. KM Mammen Mappillai passed away in 2003, leaving behind the successful conglomerate that today boasts of second strongest tyre brand in the world, according to the latest report by Brand Finance.

MRF Revenue

In May, MRF posted consolidated net profit surged over two-fold to Rs 341 crore for the March quarter. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 165 crore in the January-March quarter of 2021-22 fiscal from the continuing operations. Revenue from operations rose to Rs 5,842 crore for the fourth quarter as against Rs 5,305 crore in the year-ago period, MRF Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

For the full year ended March 31, 2023, the tyre major reported a net profit of Rs 769 crore as compared with Rs 669 crore in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 fiscal. Revenue from operations rose to Rs 23,008 crore for FY23 as against Rs 19,317 crore in FY22.