Born in Amman, Serving the World

Faraj Bassil, Country Manager, Jordan Aramex

A regional leader in total transportation solutions, Aramex has spread its
wings around the globe. Kathryn Semcow talks to Faraj Bassil, Aramex
Country Manager for Jordan, where the company was born in 1982

Aramex is expanding its facilities in Jordan. It has recently doubled its warehouse space with a 10,000 sq. metre duty-paid distribution centre near Queen Alia Airport. The Jordanian-born company, which already has warehouses in the Queen Alia Airport Free Zone, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone and Sahab Industrial Estate, is also building a 2,000 sq. metre facility at Muqablain, which Faraj Bassil, Aramex’s Country Manager – Jordan, says should be ready in 2010.

Bassil says he’ll have no problem filling up this space. “There’s always a need for our services,” he says. “We see a growing demand in Jordan.”

If anyone knows the Jordanian market, it is Aramex. CEO Fadi Ghandour founded the business by servicing its current competitors. “Aramex purely delivered courier packages for companies that did not have a presence in the region, companies such as FedEx, UPS, and Airborne Express in the US,” says Bassil.

Today, Aramex has expanded out of Jordan and has more than 30 offices around the world. It has also expanded its services, offering everything from freight forwarding, logistics and warehousing to publication distribution and specialised shopping services such as the Shop&Ship US mailbox and Shop the World catalogue shopping.

Bassil says Aramex can be considered a source of national pride. “We are a success story and we raised the bar of what we were expected to do.”

Within Jordan, Aramex has stepped outside the expectations of what an integrator is supposed to do, for example partnering with the government to deliver court notifications to the public. “We are official notifiers of court orders,” says Bassil. “We saw the justice system required faster delivery and we set up a team and product to do it.”

Aramex also saw the need for a food delivery service in Jordan, partnering with restaurants to deliver their orders. “Any restaurant that does not want to have its own delivery service can come to Aramex and have exposure to the market,” says Bassil.

He says the company hires university students who want to work their way through school as evening drivers. “Most of these kids that work with us end up being hired by Aramex after they finish their studies,” he says, smiling.

In fact, Bassil says he has no problem finding qualified staff in Jordan, thanks to the country’s highly educated workforce. “Jordan has a lot to offer. We always find what we are looking for. We also export a lot of people to the Gulf and other countries.”

However, working in Jordan, according to Bassil, has its challenges, for example, rising fuel prices. He says Aramex recently purchased seven delivery scooters, and plans to expand its fleet to 30. “We see scooters as a quick solution for less fuel consumption,” he says. “We are also looking at hybrid cars.”

Bassil also says Amman’s heavy traffic can slow business down. “Cars have become much more affordable than 10 years ago, and car sales have increased tremendously, that’s why you see traffic jams,” he adds.