About Us

It was the year 1978, when Lion Dates introduced quality Dates to the Indian Market. Almost 4 decades and a renaming since, Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. continues to be India’s largest Dates processing and trading Company. It is also the most popular amongst the quality conscious consumers all over India thanks to constant innovations like being the first company in India to sell deseeded dates or by being the first to provide vacuum packaging to keep Dates fresh. With expansion into a wide variety of nutri-based products and stringent quality measures, Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. has expanded its reach into more homes and hearts.

A pioneer of Fine Quality and Modern Packaging of Dates, Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. is an ISO 9001:22000 certified company. The company has factories located in the city of Tiruchirappalli and nearby villages in India. With leadership in Health related products, the brand Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. has, over the years, spread across 28 states and 7 union territories in India.

The mission that inspires lot of women employees from rural areas at Lion Dates Impex Private Ltd is to “Add Vitality to Life”. Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. has carried complete feasibility studies to examine the best possible ways for the same and apply it towards achieving the company’s objective – to introduce high quality products to existing as well as to the new market.

THE STORY OF A LION

• This is the story from about 50 years ago in a town called Tiruchirapalli. The story of an ordinary man with an ordinary job and ordinary man’s problems namely, feeding his family. After a string of jobs that included working in a provision store attendant, owning his own provision store, a run as Junior Assistant in the Collector’s office and selling Sabina packets on his cycle to enhance his income, he finally had his date with destiny.
• One day on one of his errands selling Sabina packets, he saw a packet of dates at a shop which didn’t look too clean. On enquiring about the poor quality of dates, he was in turn asked to do it himself. That right there proved to be a business to get into for the locked entrepreneur in him. And, so began a journey for Mr. P. Ponnudurai – a man of very modest means – with a product no one really cared about. Today, that journey is a successful business making a yearly turnover of Rs. 300 crores.

You may wonder what that has got to do with the Lion. Everything!

In those days, dates were sold loose and were mostly used as a barter item with not much value. So, in order to add value to his product, he had to give it an identity. What better an identity than that of the King of the jungle for a brand that was a pioneer in the Dates market in the country? But, if you ask him, he still says he doesn’t really know why he went with that name. Maybe it was foresight or pure coincidence, but Lion Dates is the king of the market. And, that is because of the tireless mindset, relentless urge for innovation and a roaring passion towards work for Mr. P. Ponnudurai – the man with the heart of a lion; the man at the heart of Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd.

TIMELINE

• 1978 – Dates launched in South India
• 1998 – Date Syrup launched in the market
• 1999 – Launch of Lion Kashmir Honey
• 2000 – Lion Tamarind launched
• 2003 – Lion Jam introduced in two flavours – Pineapple and Mixed Fruit
• 2008 – A Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd. plant in Muscat
• 2009 – Launch of Lion Oats