The company has the procurement capacity to make available the finest varieties of dates throughout the year. Al-Ous has a towering role in the Kingdom’s date industry with its capabilities, facilities and the exemplary style of management and future vision.

The story of the company dates back more than six decades when its founder Abdullah Al-Ous laid the first foundation stone of the company at a very difficult time. The climatic conditions were the severest then.

Needless to mention, geographical features of the region included one of the toughest terrains in the Kingdom. However, he managed to overcome all these hurdles with incredible willpower and hard work. He laid the foundations for one of the leading date palm farms in the Qassim region. After the death of Abdullah Al-Ous, his sons Fahd and Khaled inherited the company and strove hard to make it one of the foremost date companies in the Kingdom.

Al-Ous owns some 10,000 date palm trees in addition to 15,000 trees that will start production this year. This farm provides only 10 percent of the dates being handled by the company. The company buys dates from other farms or traders in various regions.

Fahd and Khaled shouldered the responsibility of developing the company into a large one after working out a successful strategy based on economic feasibility plans for the production, trading and manufacturing of various date products.

The brothers highlighted that their father was keen not only to plant date palm trees but also to implant a feeling of love toward them. Their father taught them basic lessons of cultivation and how to take care of date palm trees.

Fahd, director general of the company, said his father and brother had a deep-rooted attachment to the date plams. “He transformed this attachment to love and expertise in the trade and taking care of its cultivation on a production and development level,” he said.

“We managed to win the credibility of consumers as a result of continuous efforts over the past several years. This credibility reflects the growth in the number of customers year after year. We put into action a concept that we are ready to meet the needs of customers at any time and that we can make available to them any quantity of dates that they require,” he said.

Fahd said that the company is using advanced methods of cultivation and marketing. “Our human resources as well as fleet of trucks are instrumental in making Al-Ous a popular brand in the date industry. We have mammoth refrigerators that help us to procure huge quantities of dates throughout the year,” he said.

Fahd told Arab News that the company’s marketing policy of making quality products widely available helped it to penetrate deep into markets not only in the Kingdom but also other countries worldwide. The company manufactures a wide variety of products using date ingredients, including the various products under the Dumaid and Maamoul brands as well as date jams, juices, ketchup, mayonnaise, ice cream and shatta.

Fahd spoke about the elaborate arrangements and preparations made by the company to make available its date products to consumers during the forthcoming festival season. He expected that this year would witness an increase in the production of dates compared to last year. “Starting the production of dates from new farms, advanced facilities, improvement in quality and other such factors would contribute to this,” he said.

Referring to the obstacles faced by farmers, traders and manufacturers, Fahd said the main challenge is the insufficient number of trained staff in the cultivation of date palm trees. He also unveiled plans to open new branches in Riyadh and the western province in addition to establishing a date factory with large production capacity. The company has authorized distributors in addition to branch offices in various parts of the Kingdom.

Fahd is looking forward to the forthcoming date festival as a golden opportunity to market the company’s products among a large number of consumers within the Kingdom and outside.

“The date festivals act as an impetus for us as producers, traders and manufacturers. It also has ramifications in terms of its tourist, economic and investment dimensions. Stock market transactions involving dates would open new horizons of competition and areas of investments that are beneficial to producers to a great extent,” he added.