tinglobal looks to expand after profit spike

Refurbished kit specialist grows profits by almost a third and is looking to hire sales staff

Second user: tinglobal claims refurbished kit is gaining traction among large end users

Refurbished kit specialist tinglobal has kicked off a staff recruitment drive after posting a 31 per cent spike in annual profit.

Although turnover for the year to 31 May was flat at £23.2m, EBITA rose by almost a third to £1.3m as its PowerCore subsidiary returned to profit.

Talking to CRN, tinglobal chairman David Gutteridge said large end users are becoming more receptive to refurbished kit.

“This year we think there will be growing traction for refurbished midrange equipment,” he said. “Our revenues for the first four months of this year are up 10 per cent and our profits by 10 to 15 per cent”

Cirencester-based tinglobal, which refurbishes and trades in IBM, Sun, HP and Cisco kit, has a global customer base of 800 VARs, maintenance firms, rental specialists and distributors. Although it works in 50 countries, half of its revenues are still drawn from the UK.

But Gutteridge said the firm is looking to expand in China and add at least five bilingual heads to its 30-strong UK-based sales team.

Gutteridge admitted the integration of PowerCore, the HP and Sun specialist it bought in 2008, had been more protracted than anticipated, but revealed the unit is back in the black following hefty cost cuts.

“We cut back the revenues of PowerCore,” he said. “A chunk of the PowerCore business was not profitable and we cut out the sales people that were not making money. Revenues on the other side of the business [tindirect] grew.”

Gutteridge said his eyes were still open to potential acquisitions, but that M&A is no longer a priority.