Redeem, the Scottish-based mobile phone recycling company, has announced plans to expand its operations into Hong Kong, and added that it anticipates that the com-pany will almost double its turnover this year.
The Falkirk-headquartered company, which employs 70 workers and also has operations in UK, Ireland, Italy and Turkey, said the new Asian sales and processing centre will open on February 16, and that it will provide entry to a number of core emerging mobile markets including China, India, Africa and South America.
As a result of the expansion, the company said it expects its turnover to grow this year to £9m, compared with £5.6m last time.
Redeem said Hong Kong is a world hub for the re- furbishment and resale of mobile phones, and that it would allow the company to offer improved services and better pricing models to clients around the world.
Under the expansion plan, all mobile phones collected across its bases in the UK, Ireland, Italy and Turkey will be transported to Hong Kong to be processed and sold on to global markets.
The firm also said it is looking at ongoing opportunities within the UK market and has plans for further expansion in Europe and Asia.
It added that the move will also provide Redeem with a "more streamlined and efficient system" to grow its UK and European operations and "position the company firmly at the forefront of mobile phone recycling".
In addition to the processing and sales centre, Redeem also plans to start up mobile collection recovery programmes by targeting mobile network operators, manu- facturers, businesses and consumers in Hong Kong, offering the facility and incentive to recycle mobile phones.
Jamie Rae, the chief executive of Redeem, said: "The opening of operations in Hong Kong is a key move for our long-term growth, with a predicted turnover increase from £5.6m to almost £9m this year.
"We recognise the importance of harnessing the opportunity to sell mobile products in the emerging markets and believe that this gives us the opportunity to do that.
"It will allow us to extend significant benefits to clients, including improved pricing models and greater efficiency for our overall operations."
Redeem said it plans initially to hire eight staff to open operations in Hong Kong, but that this could rise to 40 as the business grows.
The company, which started out recycling inkjet devices and mobiles in a potato barn in 1999, works with the Scottish Prison Ser-vice to offer work to former convicts, hence its name - Redeem.
Click here to comment on this story...
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article