Print.IT Reseller - issue 73

01732 759725 32 DISTRIBUTION Leon Timmermans, CEO of circular and eco-sustainable hardware distributor Flex IT, says that lockdown measures have woken many firms up to the value of repurposed hardware. The company has experienced significantly increased demand for its products since March, as the supply of new products cannot keep up with demand Distribution in the circular economy and Lenovo from a laptop, mobile device, storage and server perspective, and it is also planning to significantly grow its partnership with Samsung. “For us, new, is most of the time, end-of-life,” Timmermans explained. Flex IT buys up unused still new in the box products from vendors prior to them launching the next generation. “When a new model is about to be launched, manufacturers are no longer interested in the older generation, so what we do is bring those products into the circular economy and the vendor doesn't have to scrap them.” Another part of the business involves the recycling and refurbishing of IT hardware that has been in use in companies for sometimes up to ten years. “We manage the complete lifecycle of a product. So, if we recycle a product, and let's say the product cannot be recycled anymore and brought back into the economy, then we will harvest the spare parts to build other equipment, nothing is wasted, we continuously reuse products,” Timmermans said. Flex IT’s strategy means it is not overproducing products or using valuable resources, instead it is doing its bit for the planet, while focusing on quality. Products come with a warranty which can range from one year to up to three years for the Approved Selection Line. Products are awarded different classifications to make it easier for partners to make a product selection. These classifications range from minus 10 and minus 1 generations, the latter being just one iteration below the most recent models launched to market and the minus 10 being older models. Demand ramps up Timmermans says that the circular market is one of the few industries that is doing extremely well at the moment. “Demand really ramped up in March as home working was widely adopted, and with manufacturing plants in China shut down, there was a shortage of new products. What we did see though in many cases, that whilst new was an option, more and more companies made the decision to embrace circular,” he explained. Flex IT’s first goal was to get 50 per cent of revenue through circular IT sales. “But the way things are going it could be up to 65 per cent,” Timmermans said. “Our early focus last year was on the bottom line because we wanted to make a change and stop selling a lot of non-value-add product groups and focus on circular IT, but the bottom line and the top line are both growing now. We are already overachieving on our strategy.” Reseller first company Flex IT prides itself on being a ‘reseller first’ company. “We are very loyal to our resellers,” said Timmermans. “We don’t work with end-user businesses, we will always refer them to one of our partners.” One of the biggest changes in the past few months has been an influx of resellers approaching the firm and asking to become part of its circular partner programme (see box out). “There’s been a huge change in mind-set,” Timmermans explained. “Instead of us going out to the channel and convincing resellers that circular is a very good alternative for new and that price shouldn’t be the main focus, large resellers across our key geographies are now coming to us, asking us to provide circular laptops in the thousands. “Many companies had employees that worked off desktops in the office and had no way of working remotely, our partners’ end-user customers were saying: ‘I need xx laptops in two days and this is the spec’. They were no longer asking for the latest and greatest, shiny and new, they just wanted a laptop that met their needs in terms of functionality, so their staff could work from home – and they needed it delivered quickly,” he added. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Flex IT has offices in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria and the UK. Having worked at Flex since 2018, Leon Timmermans was appointed to the CEO role in 2019 and has overseen a strategy refresh. “We wanted to create an identity and energise our people and that involved making choices and renewing some of the processes around our strategy,” he explained. “For every euro we spend in the company, if the choice is between circular or new product, I wanted everyone to always spend the euro on circular. Everybody is fully on board with this strategy.” The company works closely with vendors to buy excess stock and refurbish slightly older laptops, servers and mobile devices to the highest possible standard. Key vendor partners include HP (Flex is a certified refurbishment and rental partner for the brand), Dell, Apple, Cisco Flex IT buys up unused still new in the box products from vendors prior to them launching the next generation Leon Timmermans