Aramex

The company celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and is still led by the same dynamic president and CEO Fadi Ghandour. Today Aramex has 350 staff and 22 offices in Saudi Arabia alone, and a further 550 employees in the UAE. The firm also recently paid $4 million to acquire Memo Express, the UAE's leading courier firm.

'We have been growing at 13-17% in the GCC area over the past few years,' says Mr. Ghandour. 'And Memo Express is just the first step in an aggressive strategy focusing on further acquisitions and expansion. We hope to announce another one or two acquisitions in the next six months'.

The progression of ownership at Aramex is equally interesting. Aramex was the first, and only, Arab company to list on the NASDAQ stock market in New York. And earlier this year Aramex was the first to de-list in a deal that valued the company at $61 million, and left a UAE investment bank with a 72% stake.

'We think the place to list in the future is here in this region, and we are following the development of local equity markets with interest,' says Mr. Ghandour. 'In three to five years I would expect to be a listed company again, and we learnt a lot from our experience of NASDAQ.

'But our new ownership is very ambitious. And we want to grow by geographic spread, product type and client base. Today we have free zone operations in the UAE, Jordan and Bahrain, and our plans include areas such as Lebanon and Egypt'.

Earlier this year Aramex opened a new $1 million logistics facility at Amman airport and expanded its Dubai facility at Jebel Ali. The company is also committing itself heavily to developing a new customer relationship management system, and investing in tracking and tracing capabilities.

'We are a regional company in a field dominated by global giants but I firmly intend to remain independent,' says Mr. Ghandour, who is also a founding partner in the Arab Internet portal maktoob.com, and chairman of B2B marketplace Aregon. He is also a member of King Abdullah's economic consultative council in Jordan.

Aramex is something of a model in being a truly regional company, developed along Western lines. It will also be a big beneficiary of the completion of the GCC customs union at the start of next year which should lead to a boom in cross border trade.

'We will be ready for it,' says Mr. Ghandour. 'The key is developing a ground transportation business with a 24 hour service. But the customs union will cause a boom in our business.'