Last year, Lion acquired two firms that provide fire and safety training systems and centers — BullEx Digital Safety of Albany, N.Y., and Haagen Training Products, based in the Netherlands — to create the Lion Training Resources Group. In November, the group completed the world’s largest fire training facility in Shanghai, China.
In addition, the company’s military supply chain division, Lion Vallen Industries, is an information technology-based service that tracks and manages nearly $2 billion in government property, including personal combat gear for the U.S. Marine Corps.
“We have saved the U.S. government probably around $500 million over the past 10 years by avoiding the purchase of new equipment and repairing it instead,” Schwartz said.
Founded in 1898 as a business that sold clothing and dry goods to farmers from a wagon, and later a store in downtown Dayton, Lion is a family owned and operated company with about 1,000 employees worldwide, including about 130 in the Dayton area, and annual revenues of more than $100 million, Schwartz said.
Lion made its name providing uniforms to service station workers and also supplied the Army Air Force with the first electrically heated flight suits during World War II. The company expanded into the firefighter protective gear market during the 1970s. In 2004, Lion sold its legacy business division, Lion Uniform Group, to focus on the emergency service, civilian agency and military uniform business.
Lion Apparel in 2010 moved its corporate headquarters to the former Iams building on Poe Avenue and changed its brand to simply “Lion.”
Lion’s clothing, which also includes chemical protection gear worn by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal and law enforcement agencies, is manufactured in Kentucky. The company’s firefighter helmets are manufactured at the National Composite Center in Kettering.
Seven of the 10 largest fire departments in the U.S. are wearing Lion gear, Schwartz said. The products are tested at the company’s Vandalia laboratory and are subject to a third-party certification process as defined by the National Fire Protection Association, officials said.
Schwartz said Lion’s focus on innovation started about 15 years ago with the introduction of its Isodry protective system, which is engineered to reduce water intake in firefighters’ turncoats. Water inside a garment trapped against the wearer’s skin represents a significant hazard because that water may at any time turn to steam and scald the firefighter, he said.
Lion’s latest product in collaboration with Delaware-based chemical company DuPont is an outer garment that blends high strength, heat-resistant Kevlar filament with flame-resistant Nomex for added strength, mobility and durability.
“That is important not only to enhance the protection of the firefighter, but with the state of municipal finances today cities are looking for ways to buy the most economical and the most durable, long-lasting products that they can,” Schwartz said.
The acquisition of BullEx and Haagen provides synergy because the companies share common customers who typically evaluate Lion’s protective gear during training exercises. BullEx offers digital and live-fire training products that include smoke generators and propane-based training props. Haagen has built advanced fire training centers in Holland, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia.
“We are super excited about how these two businesses fit together and the opportunity to increase firefighter safety as a result,” Schwartz said.
The group’s new firefighter training center in China features more than 25 fires in nine training zones and is designed to prepare Shanghai Fire Brigade officers for large-scale emergencies. Fire-fighting scenarios include a 16-story apartment complex, a petrochemical-processing plant, and a 110-foot super-tanker shipboard system.
In late 2012, the group broke ground on another large fire training complex for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Melbourne, Australia.
Locally, Lion is collaborating with Wright State University on the National Center for Medical Readiness at Calamityville in Fairborn.
“We would like to work on ways to assist Calamityville to bring some of those technologies and concepts to Dayton, so that we can bring firefighters from all over the world to Dayton be be trained using the latest technology and the best gear,” Schwartz said.
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