Ex Sims bosses form breakaway IT recycling firm

Jon Godfrey says his new outfit is not designed to compete with mainstream asset recovery firms such as former firm Sims

Jon Godfrey says he has no plans to compete with Sims Lifecycle Services after he and two other directors left the IT asset recovery firm to form a new venture.

Godfrey and fellow directors Graham Davy and Andrew Morgan struck out on their own last autumn after a restructure at Sims left them questioning its strategy.

Talking to CRN, Godfrey said new venture Intelligent Lifecycle Solutions would not be a threat to Sims due to its nimble and consultative approach.

"Sims was going through a restructure and being an American PLC was dominated by its metals recycling business. I was not comfortable with the new strategy so felt it was time to do something new," said Godfrey, who sold his previous venture, Lifecycle Services, to Sims in 2008.

"Sims' Newport recycling centre has capacity for 100,000 tonnes, so we are tiny by comparison," he said. "We are not trying to be a mainstream heavyweight, but to focus on the specific areas we can add value."

Intelligent Lifecycle Solutions currently has 15 staff in south Wales and a further 22 in Scotland, courtesy of its recent acquisition of Airdree-based hard drive repair business Intelligent Storage Solutions.

Godfrey (pictured), a well-known industry face who has led calls for higher standards in the UK IT disposal space, said re-use was a focus for the privately owned firm.

"In these days of austerity, clients are trying to extract as much value as they can from their estates, which is something our business is very good at," he said.

"Some of our early projects have been supporting SIs and resellers where they need some very specific advice. We're not trying to be a bulk mainstream recycler."

Anand Narasimhan, director of Sims Lifecycle Services, provided us with the following comment when we asked Sims for a response to the story.

"We are committed to offering a complete range of IT asset management solutions to businesses worldwide and our global market-leading position has been recognised by Gartner's December 2013 Magic Quadrant for Worldwide IT Asset Disposition," he said.