Led by a team that includes industry veterans, Houston, Texas-based ITAD firm eCircular announced its official launch on Feb. 28. A company leader says the venture will be able to fill an underserved portion of the ITAD market and help other processors as well.
The eCircular management team consists of Michael Schuler as executive vice president, Stephen Patrick as vice president and Angel Martinez as director of commodities and procurement, all of whom have many years of experience at numerous ITAD operations.
In an interview, Schuler said the company’s 38,000-square-foot facility has a processing target of about 50,000 units per month. He anticipates material will be in and out the door within 30 days, so the facility doesn’t need a large storage area and can focus most of its real estate on processing. Schuler said eCircular has nine technicians and will be growing in the next few months, aiming to reach 50 employees within a year or so.
Technicians can typically process about 80 laptops per day, Schuler said.
He added that the facility will focus on sorting and aggregating devices for downstream disposition. The company won’t be shredding or otherwise performing commodity recovery services on-site.
“Our real objective is to get top dollar on material that is working but might be below the cutline for most people,” Schuler told E-Scrap News.
Schuler, who has worked in the e-scrap industry for decades at companies like Veterans Alliance Resourcing and HiTech Assets, said the company is well-positioned to fit a certain segment of the ITAD market. Bigger companies tend to avoid taking on jobs that are too small or outside of their areas of expertise, or because the job doesn’t provide enough return for the company.
That bottom line of when a job makes economic sense for a large company is “actually getting higher and higher because of their operational costs,” Schuler said. There’s just not enough value for the large companies to spend time on certain jobs. As examples, Schuler mentioned Generation 7, 8 and 9 servers, Chromebooks, and lower than 4th-generation i-Series desktops and laptops.
Schuler says the eCircular team feels comfortable it’ll be able to profitably service those types of jobs with its lean operation and its team’s industry knowledge.
Additionally, Schuler has substantial experience cultivating resale markets, and feels confident eCircular will be able to work with other ITAD operators that have less expertise in a certain field. For example, he said some ITAD operators might focus on data centers and networking equipment but don’t have the depth of knowledge to move PCs.
“That’s where we could come in and be a partner to them, and do it very economically,” he said.
The company chose Houston in part because of the logistical advantages of locating near a shipping hub.
“We’re in a good position to be able to get top dollar for the recycled material and cut our costs because we’re at a port city,” he said.
