Marcus Richards
We are one of the most established suppliers of refurbished IT hardware in the UK. We sell servers, storage and networking equipment that is anywhere from 30 days to five years old. We’re committed to helping every business, regardless of its size or sector, access state-of-the-art enterprise IT equipment at an affordable price.
Tell us about yourself?
I left school when I was 16 and joined the army (Royal Corp of Signals) as a Communications Engineer, where I trained on analogue, pre-computer equipment. I stayed for 10 years and left just as the switch to digital and dial up modems was gathering pace.
In 1993, I took my first job in the tech industry, with R Frazier Ltd – one of the early pioneers of the IT circular economy in the UK. I provided tech support to sales staff who were selling used IBM and Cisco equipment, then moved into sales and eventually sales management. I left in 2001 to start ETB Technologies.
The company grew organically until 2014, when I bought out my business partner and we began to expand. Since then, we’ve increased sales from £3.5m to £15m and grown staff from 14 to over 60.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
My only regret is not having had the ambition and confidence to focus my efforts on growing the business earlier that I did. We’ve done so well since we focussed on expansion post-2014, it’s hard not to look back and think ‘if only…’.
What problem does your business solve?
It’s no surprise to anyone that businesses have faced huge disruption to their day-to-day operations during the pandemic. While this has created uncertainty and challenged the status quo, it has also given businesses an opportunity to reimagine their ways of working and processes, especially when managing the switch to remote or hybrid working.
This digital shift has increased demand for networking and server products for businesses for all shapes and sizes. But a combination of supply chain issues and low product availability has meant that businesses face long delays in sourcing new equipment. As a result, and as we have seen over the past two years, more are now willing to consider refurbished kit.
What’s encouraging is that companies are realising that the quality of refurbished equipment can almost match new items, and are backed by the same service levels, including one, two or even three years’ warranty on certain products. Buying refurbished kit also supports the circular economy and helps cut carbon emissions from businesses’ supply chains, so there’s environmental benefits too.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The refurbished market has been around for longer than many people realise. Since establishing ETB 20 years ago, I’ve seen the market mature tremendously in terms of product quality and levels of service. Having access to the latest systems was driven by customer demand, but it was also one of my founding principles for the company.
Now, the market is as competitive as I’ve ever seen it, and suppliers need to be constantly reviewing their differentiators to set themselves apart from the competition. Whether this is through how they engage with their customers, how easy they make it for their customers to purchase, or the range of products and services they offer – it’s great news for the buyer.
Our customers are all busy and don’t want to spend their limited time on sourcing hardware, so we make it easy for them. We do this having a wide range of products and a multi-channel approach so they can buy from us in the way that best suits their needs.
What is your magic sauce?
From day one, we have prided ourselves on creating an excellent experience for every customer. This means that we stock all the leading brands for enterprise servers, storage, and networking equipment – including Dell EMC, Cisco, HP, and Juniper – helping more businesses upgrade or fine-tune their IT estates without breaking the bank.
But we don’t just rely on selling best-in-class kit to keep our customers happy. Every part of our business is responsible for exemplary service – from our warehouse to engineering teams – and we strive to provide quality at every stage of the customer journey. When we spot something that isn’t working, we swiftly change it to make it work better.
Of course, we also recognise that sometimes things go wrong and, whilst all our products are thoroughly tested by our fully qualified engineering team, customers can rest assured that everything we sell is covered by a warranty which includes technical support.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We’ve seen significant growth over the past few years; so much so that we have been majority acquired by Swedish investment firm, Roko. Our aim is to consolidate our market leading position domestically, as well as expanding our international footprint. To achieve this, I see us doubling in size within the next 3-5 years – by continuing to build on the growth strategies that have worked well for us so far – delivering industry-leading recruitment and training, expanding into new territories, and increasing our product range.
Ultimately, regardless of our future growth, we will continue to focus on showing people that there are no downsides to buying refurbished equipment: the price and availability can, in many cases, be far better than buying new.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We may be based in the south of Scotland, but our supplier and customer base is very much international, with around 40% of our sales to EU countries. Because of this large footprint in Europe, Brexit unsurprisingly caused disruption and uncertainty, but this has now levelled out and we have processes in place to deal with customs and shipping, enabling us to continue providing our customers with the very best service possible.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
If your business depends on IT to survive, refurbished equipment is a great way to manage costs, while boosting productivity and upgrading your systems. If you’re looking for a back-up server for your email system or database so that you can utilise other systems to process sales for example, there are plenty of options to choose from and we have stock ready to ship – so there’s no need to wait weeks to get your system running more efficiently.
