The market trend for refurbished equipment that began at the end of 2013 has continued in the beginning of 2014. The trends of reuse - and the sharing economy – have both positively impacted on growth at 3 Step IT over the last year.
Group CEO Artti Aurasmaa believes there are three main reasons for this positive development.
“Firstly,” he explained, “end-users have realized that a recycled secondhand device can be a better choice than a new one Secondly, the economic downturn has also increased the popularity of used devices. Finally, the growth of the market for refurbished devices has also been positively impacted by the slow development of Windows environment, which has caused users to stick to their old devices and older operating systems.”
The changes in the marketplace have meant that 3 Step IT, which provides services for the acquisition, management and replacement of IT devices, significantly improved its operating profit in 2013.
Aurasmaa said that the company’s improved profitability can be attributed to both the positive market development for refurbished IT devices as well as further development of the company’s operations.
“We are particularly excited,” he stressed, “that our operating profit improved by as much as 20% amounting to €11.3 million. Our improved profitability reflects our increased focus on our core business and selected market areas. We also succeeded in increasing the sales of value-added services, such as the management and replacement of IT devices, as planned.”
In 2013, the company closed down some of its operations e.g. in the US and Russia. This change is set to allow 3 Step IT to focus more clearly on its core business in its main markets, where the volume grew as planned. Despite of the geographical consolidation of operations, 3 Step IT’s turnover remained close to the previous year’s high level, totaling €437 million. The decrease from the previous year was 2%.
Aurasmaa predicts that for 2014 3 Step IT will increase its turnover to over half a billion euros and further improve its profitability.
“This year,” he said, “we will invest in developing our offering, such as mobile services. The diversity of equipment used at the workplace is increasing with the technology transformation, which sets new demands on IT management. When desktop computers and laptops change to hybrids and tablets, we want to be the best partner for our clients in this transition.”
