Aramex rebrand rolls ahead

Covid-19 didn’t get in the way of a multi-million dollar rebranding exercise from Fastway Couriers to Aramex across New Zealand and Australia.

Aramex New Zealand chief executive Scott Jenyns said close to five kilometres of vinyl was used on Aramex’s 1180 strong vehicle fleet on both sides of the Tasman.

Scott said the brand roll out was initially expected to take approximately three months to complete in New Zealand, including new signage at offices and depots, as well as over 300 courier vehicles and apparel for 500 plus people. 

‘We had a tight deadline and there was significant logisitics involved to get vehicles and depots branded, but we weren’t going to let Covid-19 slow us down too much.

 ‘In usual circumstances it would be a big exercise but the uncertainty of how we would operate through the levels of lockdown was a disruption, including the huge increase in local businesses moving to online retail which saw a big upsurge in residential deliveries at Level 3,’ he says.

Fastway Couriers was founded in Napier, Hawke’s Bay in 1983 and went on to have a presence in Australia, Ireland and South Africa before being bought by Dubai based logistics group Aramex in 2016.

Aramex is considered one of the top 5 logistics providers in the world with a presence in 72 countries, transporting nearly 70 million parcels globally each year.

Scott said the brand exercise was more than a new logo and it was about better leveraging off Aramex’s global footprint in over 70 countries.

‘The change is about improving how we move parcels and we can now offer a seamless transaction under one name and that is a much easier story for our international business partners, especially those that are international e-commerce businesses selling and delivering consumer products to New Zealanders.

‘It also provides us with the opportunity to introduce new products and services to build a bigger, stronger business in New Zealand and grow our franchisees in the process.

‘We’ll still be local franchisees, in local regions, and this is very important to us as franchising remains in our DNA. The key point of difference is that now we’ll be able to offer greater global reach and opportunities to our customers and our people through career advancement opportunities.

The huge brand roll out of vehicles and building signage was delivered by Hawke’s Bay based media solutions business Mammoth.

Managing Director Regan Molloy said the brand rollout was a ‘mammoth task’, made bigger due to doing some of it during a pandemic.

‘We had a lot of it completed prior to lockdown but we wanted to deliver a high quality product, so it was important not to rush it. We’ve had a very long relationship and actually shared the same name, Fastway, as we were once the print division of the company.

‘We also rebranded, but it wasn’t as big a task but because we had been through it, we were able to apply some of the learnings,’ Regan says.

Mammoth is a 3M, a Gold Level Select Partner, which means it must pass 3M's thorough auditing process to achieve this elite status and are recognised by 3M as leaders in the graphics, architectural and window film industries.