The company has just issued its latest results showing a 13% year-on-year growth in profits and a 9% growth in sales in the third quarter.

Dubai-listed Aramex said the growth has come thanks to “solid” results in its core businesses in express, logistics and freight in the

Middle East and North Africa, despite a “prolonged low-trading season”. Results have been helped particularly by growth in e-commerce.

Cost-cutting and efficiency improvements also had a hand in the improvement in results as Aramex recorded revenues of AED 827m ($225.2m USD) and net profit of AED 59.9m ($16.1m USD).

But increasingly, the company’s efforts in the rest of Africa are playing an important role in the Aramex global network.

The company said its Sub-Saharan Africa markets were recording strong growth, with South Africa emerging as an important market. Aramex expanded to South Africa at the tail-end of 2011 with the acquisition of local express delivery firm Berco Express.

Momentum

Aramex has expanded its business-to-consumer services to eight more origin cities to build on the interest in e-commerce, including Istanbul, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Mumbai. The company has also been expanding its supply chain services into new industries.

Hussein Hachem, the Aramex chief executive, said his company had entered the final quarter of the year with “very good momentum”.

“We have expanded our industry supply chain solutions, in particular for the oil and gas sector and we expect to extend these services to additional markets. We have also succeeded in expanding our footprint through franchising and acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia – markets that will be key to our future development – and we will continue to focus on expansion in these markets in 2014.”

With its headquarters in Amman, Jordan, Aramex currently employs more than 13,900 people in 354 locations across 60 countries.