A Plymouth company set up by two young men in one of their mum’s kitchen is now turning over £15million from the growing refurbished tech market.
Matt Green, now aged 31, and Liam James, now 32, formed iOutlet in Plymouth in 2013, and since then the business has grown rapidly and garnered them a clutch of awards – including a new shortlisting as online retailer of the year against heavyweights MusicMagpie, AO Mobiles and O2.
Mr Green and Mr James will travel to London’s classy Park Lane Hilton hotel in March for the Mobile News Awards 2020, and Mr Green said: “We were gobsmacked to find ourselves next to those names.”
But maybe the iOutlet team shouldn’t be, the business is on target for another profitable year, with 2019/20 turnover likely to come in at £15million.
It means the company, still owned by the two founders, will have garnered more than £100million in sales since formation.
Mr Green and Mr James now employ 30 people in three locations, and are shareholders in a high street spin-off shop too.
The iOutlet started off as a mobile phone repair business, but, while it still does this, has morphed into a sales outfit for refurbished tech, including iphones, ipads and Apple watches.
It is because a huge second-hand tech device industry has been established, operating in much the same way as the used car market does.
Mr Green said that with new phones costing up to £1,000 there is a growing appetite for kit that is fairly recent but not the newest release.
It means iOutlet can tidy up a used device, upgrading screens, speakers, buttons and charging points, and sell on.
“Out average selling point is £300 to £400,” said Mr Green. “That is not for the latest phone but for one or two behind the latest. It’s exactly like the car market.”
Mr James said diversifying the business had proved a sensible move and now was “pretty much recession proof” because people see mobile phones as a necessity.
“The last thing people want to give up is their phone,” he said.
The iOutlet, based on a large business part in north Plymouth, is still looking at expansion, possibly into Europe, particularly with the UK’s Brexit trade settlement far from finalised.
“If we don’t get the right deal we’d have to get a European office,” said Mr Green, with one eye on future VAT arrangements which could change.
The iOutlet was founded with a kitty of just £5,000 but made £3million in its first two years and leaped into the top five in a list of Britain’s 100 best start-ups.
It was placed at number 11 in 2015, and number 21 in 2014, before cracking the top 10 in 2016, in the Startups 100 index, which identifies privately-owned UK companies which demonstrate “innovation, solid financials, economic impact and ability to scale”.
Mr James has an IT degree and worked for IBM for a year, while Mr Green has a physiotherapy degree and trained as a PE teacher before they started on of the UK’s “most pioneering new businesses”.
They went on to win the 2016 Plymouth Business Award for Best Young Business Person – and a year later landing the Small Business of the Year gong in the same contest.
“That was the one we really wanted,” said Mr Green.
