Ingram Micro teams up with Grover in reverse logistics and refurbishment to strengthen the circular economy

Ingram Micro takes over the sustainable technical refurbishment of rental equipment at the Flensburg location.

Berlin, March 16, 2023 - Grover, the leading provider in rental commerce for electronic products and Ingram Micro Lifecycle, the specialist for forward and reverse logistics, are partnering up to actively support the circular economy. Effective immediately, Ingram Micro will handle reverse logistics for Grover at Lifecycle's Flensburg location.

In this new collaboration for private and business customers, Grover and Ingram Micro are combining their strengths to create a more circular economy.

"We are very pleased to be working with Grover, whose product range we complement with our broad service portfolio in a technologically forward-looking way," said Eric Rositzki, Managing Director Lifecycle Services at Ingram Micro. "With our many years of experience in the field of repair, refurbishment, and data erasure, we offer Grover solutions that we have tailored precisely to their requirements. As a result, together we are making a valuable contribution to maximizing the circular economy."

Grover continuously rents out tech products to different users. This cycle of renting, refurbishing devices, and renting again has the potential to extend the usability and therefore the lifetime of tech products. The more that people rent devices instead of buying new ones, the more likely that resources are saved and e-waste is avoided.

Ingram Micro brings to this collaboration many years of expertise in logistics, returns management, refurbishment, repair, and certified data erasure. Ingram Micro's reverse logistics services for Grover include four types of returns: 1) the regular return of products at the end of the contract period, 2) the return of damaged products, 3) the return of product revocations, and 4) the processing of undeliverable packages. Based on these defined criteria, the products are sent for reconditioning, repairs or, in the case of irreparable damage, recycled or disassembled and resold into individual components.

Marcel Kroek, Head of Recommerce at Grover, explains "A large part of the tech products we rented and shipped in 2022 will be returned to Ingram Micro during 2023. With Ingram Micro as an experienced logistics partner with specializations in, among other things, returns and repair, we are therefore ideally positioned. In addition, this cooperation offers promising growth potential for Grover, thanks to Ingram Micro's numerous locations and services within Europe."

About Grover

Grover is the global leader in technology rentals, enabling people to subscribe to tech products monthly instead of buying them. Founded in 2015 by Michael Cassau, Grover’s mission is to make exceptional technology more accessible, because technology is a basic human right. With Grover, subscribers get access to a wide range of over 5,000 tech products, including smartphones, laptops, virtual reality (VR) gear, wearables and smart home appliances on a flexible monthly rental basis. Once a product rental period has ended, Grover’s service allows its users to return it free of charge. They can also decide to extend the product rental length or exchange the product for something else. Rentals are available in the U.S., Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain at GROVER.COM, as well as in Germany through Grover’s online and offline partner network, including Europe’s leading electronics retail group, MediaMarktSaturn. Grover is a pioneer in the circular economy: Its business model of renting out and refurbishing tech products contributes to devices being used more frequently and for a longer period. That increases the potential to avoid e-waste. Grover has circulated more than 1 million devices in total. With total funding of around €1.4 billion to date and over 400 employees, Grover is one of the fastest-growing scaleups in Europe. www.grover.com

Sustainability at Grover

To date, Grover has already circulated over 1 million devices such as headphones, smartphones or cameras. Depending on the product category, Grover rents out tech products, anywhere from two to six times. On average, every device is rented out three times. To date, Grover has circulated more than 1M devices, refurbished more than 300k devices, and repaired around 1.5k devices per month. Due to its rental model, Grover estimates that between 2015 and 2022, the purchase of approximately 100k new devices were avoided.

About Ingram Micro

Under the claim Realize the Promise of Technology, Ingram Micro supports its business partners in efficiently and successfully realizing their value proposition. The distributor offers a comprehensive portfolio and in-depth expertise in the areas of technology solutions, mobility, cloud and supply chain services. Far-reaching flexibility, in-depth market knowledge and the trust of a network that has grown over decades distinguish Ingram Micro as one of the leading ICT providers. For more information, visit www.ingrammicro.de.

About Ingram Micro Lifecycle

Ingram Micro Lifecycle provides advanced solutions for the take-back, refurbishment, repair and remarketing of technology products, device-as-a-service. In terms of circular economy, Ingram Micro offers its partners a long-standing expertise on Device-as-a-Services, supporting the evolution of processes from mere ownership to usage. These services enable carriers, resellers, enterprise customers and OEMs to support the lifecycle of technology products through a range of environmentally conscious and profitable solutions. www.ingrammicrolifecyle.com

Press contacts

Grover:

Elisa Nenning
Global Communications Director
E-Mail: elisa@grover.com

Ingram Micro:

Annika Bartholl
Tel.: 0172/869 1030
E-Mail: presse@ingrammicro.de