Refurbed hits €1bn sales milestone

Refurbed has hit the milestone of selling €1 billion worth of refurbished technology across its seven European markets since its launch in 2017.

Ireland ranks highly among the seven countries in which Refurbed does business, coming second only to Austria, despite only launching here two years ago.

The marketplace, which operates in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland, provides access to sustainable, refurbished technology such as smartphones, laptops, games consoles and home appliances.

Refurbed has seen sales rise more than 150 per cent in the year to date, following similar growth last year and in 2021, indicating that more consumers are adopting refurbished technology.

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Kilian Kaminski, co-founder of Refurbed, said it showed products like this were no longer niche and that Ireland was a “valued market”.

“When we started the company, numbers like €100 million or €1 billion were more a dream than something you could say would happen at this point in time,” he said.

“In Ireland, we grew 2.5 times year over year and, also, really strongly in the other markets. I think since last summer, it has also accelerated a bit through inflation, because, now, also customers who maybe historically purchased new products are not willing to afford them any more. So, they also are moving to refurbished products and are now buying for both price advantage as well as sustainability.”

He said it was a surprise that Ireland had reached second place within two years of launching and that there had also been knock on benefits for merchants here, who now had a wider market for their products.

“We have a multinational marketplace, where our partners are based in Europe,” he said. “Irish merchants have increased their sales by over 4,000 per cent since this time last year.”

Pádraig Power, senior marketing manager for Refurbed, said the company was proud of the achievement. “We are very pleased and extremely proud of this result and milestone in Refurbed’s history,” he said. “It is incredible to see how much Refurbed has grown since we first launched in Ireland in early 2021. Ireland ranking second after Austria demonstrates Irish consumers’ commitment to more sustainable consumption.”

[ Refurbed teams up with TekEir to offer refurbished technology ]

Founded in 2017 by Mr Kaminski, Peter Windischhofer and Jurgen Riedl, Refurbed launched in Ireland in March 2021, following a $17 million (€14.3 million) Series A raise in 2020. They aimed to tap into a growing interest in Ireland for more environmentally conscious, affordable technology.

In recent months, it has teamed up with 48 to offer the mobile network’s customers more sustainable, cheaper smartphones, expanded its product offering to include a range of home appliances and refurbished games consoles and begun offering a business to business service to Irish companies.

Mr Kaminski was recently appointed to the board of EUREFAS, the European Refurbishment Association, which aims to create standards within the refurbishment industry while promoting sustainable consumption across Europe.