The company manufactures rubber products including tyres, treads, tubes and conveyor belts, paints and toys.

MRF was started by K. M. Mammen Mappillai as a toy balloon manufacturing unit in 1946 at Tiruvottiyur, Madras (now Chennai).

[5] The company went public on 1 April 1961 and an office was established in Beirut, Lebanon to develop the export market in 1964 and its current logo of the muscleman was born.

The company finalised a technical collaboration agreement with Marangoni TRS SPA, Italy for the manufacture of pre-cured tread rubber for retreading industry.

[5] In 1989, the company collaborated with Hasbro International, the world's largest toy maker and launched Funskool India.

[12] MRF has sponsored Indian racing drivers including Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandok, Ashwin Sundar, N. Leelakrishnan and Raj Bharath.

[14] MRF entered the European Rally Championship in 2020, with WRC Hyundai driver Craig Breen and Emil Lindholm driving for the team.

Emil Lindholm left ERC and instead will focus entirely on testing the tyres on the gravel roads of Finland.

After the 2021 Rally di Roma Capitale, Breen was replaced by other Hyundai drivers, Jari Huttunen and Dani Sordo, as well as Nil Solans later on.

MRF promotes a national motocross championship, a form of all-terrain two wheeler racing held on enclosed off-road circuits annually across several cities.

Fast bowlers who trained with foundation and went on to represent the Indian Cricket Team include Javagal Srinath, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Venkatesh Prasad, R. P. Singh, Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth.

Glenn McGrath was appointed director of the Foundation on 2 September 2012, replacing Dennis Lillee, who has held the post since its inception in 1987.

[17] MRF has also sponsored Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma,[18] Gautam Gambhir, Sanju Samson, Shikhar Dhawan and Mignon du Preez.