Redeem Establishes Operations in the United Arab Emirates and Prepares for Middle East and North Africa Expansion
Redeem, the leading mobile phone recommerce and recycling company in Europe, is delighted to announce it has successfully established operations in the United Arab Emirates, as the company prepares for further expansion across the Middle East and North Africa.
Earlier this year Redeem officially opened its Middle East and North Africa office in Dubai’s Airport Free Zone. The new office is headed by Husni El Assi – a 25-year veteran of the mobile communications industry in the region, who spent over 13 years with Sony Ericsson – and is staffed by a team of experienced sales and marketing specialists.
Redeem Middle East & North Africa has recently signed partnerships with three of the key electronics retailers in the United Arab Emirates– namely Virgin Megastore, iStyle (an Apple Premium Reseller) and Plug Ins.
Under the terms of the partnerships, retailers are able to offer consumers vouchers (to be spent in store or online) in return for their used mobile phones. Redeem provides full support to the retailers, for instance by tailoring the scheme to the retailer, advising on marketing, training staff, and taking the used mobile phones from the retailers in return for appropriate payment.
Together Virgin Megastore, iStyle and Plug Ins have over 40 retail outlets in the UAE, and Redeem expects to agree partnerships shortly with two further major retailers, which will bring the total number of UAE outlets where a mobile phone trade-in offer is supported by Redeem to 70. In addition the team are already developing relationships with new partners in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.
El Assi said: “Redeem provides a unique new service for retailers. Working with us, retailers are able to make an exciting offer to their customers – vouchers in return for the customers’ used phones – which helps to cement the customer relationship and sell further products and services. In addition, Redeem makes payment to the retailers and takes the used phones, and provides experienced and knowledgeable support.”
El Assi added: “Redeem is proud of its world-beating experience in the field of mobile phone recommerce and recycling. We look forward to working with more partners across the Middle East and North Africa. Those partners may be retailers, major network operators, distributors, or others – including corporates who wish to dispose of used mobile phones in a secure manner which is respectful of the environment.”
Redeem has over fifteen years of industry experience in recommerce, recycling and trade-in services. It is a global leader in the provision of recommerce and recycling solutions for hand-held technology, operating in 26 countries. Redeem has paid customers over £300 million through its market leading consumer brand, Envirofone, and partnerships with major European mobile network operators such Telefonica, Telia Sonera, and Vodafone.
Mark Chambers, Chief Commercial Officer of Redeem, said: “Establishing our operations in the Middle East represents a significant milestone in the growth of the Redeem Group. The Middle East region will benefit from Redeem’s 15 years of experience in delivering scalable, innovative and market-leading solutions at both a global and local level. With solutions tailored to each client requirement providing maximum simplicity and flexibility, we’re confident we can replicate our successful tried-and-tested processes from Europe, South East Asia and North America in this new and exciting territory.”
For enquiries about partnering with Redeem in the Middle East or North Africa, please contact Husni El Assi via info@redeem.co.uk
For media enquiries, please contact Powerscourt:
john.elliott@powerscourt-group.com 0207 324 0492 / 07894 709 826
juliet.callaghan@powerscourt-group.com 0203 328 9383 / 07968 819 273
About Redeem
Redeem is a leading global provider of recommerce and recycling solutions for mobile phones.
Redeem takes back used mobile phones and other devices from corporates and consumers, testing and evaluating them before selling them, both within and across territories, to business and other consumers. As well as providing services for other companies under white label arrangements, we operate three brands – Redeem itself (innovative trade-in solutions for MNOs and retailers), Envirofone (for consumers), and emc (secure data wiping and environmentally friendly recycling solutions for business).
With over 15 years’ experience, Redeem operates in 26 countries on four continents, with regional offices in Iberia (Spain); Nordic/Balkans (Sweden and Estonia), Asia (Hong Kong) Middle East and North Africa (Dubai). In 2014, Redeem handled 1.9m phones – approx. 37,000 per week – and returned £65m to customers. Under Redeem’s continuing partnership with Telefónica UK on the O2 Recycle scheme, the largest of its kind in Europe, £100m has now been given to UK consumers.
Redeem’s customers around the world include Telefónica UK (O2 Recycle), Vodafone, Tech Data, Bell Canada, CellC, Telia Sonera and Tele2. The recycled mobile phone market is showing strong and accelerating growth, according to Technavio’s 2014 – 2018 Global Green and Recycled Mobile Phone Market report, with 79.5m units expected to be recycled in 2018, and 14.1% growth in 2014 moving up to 20.8% growth in 2018.
Around 95% of the traded-in devices Redeem handle are data-wiped, refurbished and resold. The 5% that cannot be restored are fully recycled, leading to zero waste going to landfill. Redeem provides the data and certification to satisfy the WEEE Directive and high quality CSR programmes.
