The Corporate Finance and Tax teams at North West accountancy and advisory firm, CLB Coopers, part of the Baldwins Group, have supported mobile remanufacturing company, EcoRenew Group, which has a base in Lancashire, in its multi-million pound acquisition of Mazuma Mobile as part of its global expansion plans.
The acquisition of Mazuma Mobile, one of the UK’s largest and most well-known B2C mobile phone take-back providers, comes just a few weeks after EcoRenew’s successful acquisition of Lancaster-based data protection specialist, ICT Reverse, making the group the first true end-to-end solution, from a single company, within the IT and telecoms market.
Headed up by CEO, Mark Chambers, EcoRenew Group was founded in 2016 in Hong Kong as a mobile refurbishment specialist and has since witnessed exponential global growth, with operations now located in Morecambe, London, Dallas, Tokyo, Manila and Dubai. Its annual turnover for 2018 is projected to be in excess of £220 million; it has over 1,000 employees and serves more than 1 million customers every year.
The group is pursuing a multi-million expansion strategy as it builds a fleet of bases within Europe to complement its growing product and service portfolio. Its current services include data protection, asset recovery, consumer trading, repair, financial services and remanufacture solutions to its clients.
Demonstrating an ability to cater to both corporate and consumer demand, Mark and the team have carefully selected trusted and well-established brands to add to the group’s already impressive portfolio. The acquisitions of Mazuma Mobile and ICT Reverse in November last year are estimated to boost the turnover of the group’s UK arm to £33 million.
Speaking of the group’s growth plans, Mark said: “We are recruiting some of the industry’s most experienced leaders and forward-thinking minds to develop unrivalled creativity, knowledge and innovation in the sector. The team has an unparalleled industry experience and we are guided by that vision, which is something very unique.
“The intention is to grow the brand globally with a series of co-ordinated acquisitions per year and there will be further exciting announcements early in 2018.
“We’ll invest heavily in these solutions and have plans to super-charge the roll-out through our existing global presence and infrastructure along the ‘belt and road’ in the UAE, Europe, China, South East Asia and the US.”
John Lam, co-founder of Mazuma Mobile, commented: “Our announcement with EcoRenew is another solid step in our journey to further cement our position as market leader in the UK handset recycler market. This partnership will help us deliver an even stronger proposition to our customers with the impressive set up at EcoRenew and will also provide us with opportunities to expand to other parts of the world. It’s the launch of a new and exciting chapter for Mazuma Mobile.”
EcoRenew Group was supported throughout the acquisition by the Corporate Finance and Tax teams at CLB Coopers. Senior Director, Rob Richardson headed up the transaction with the support of fellow Senior Director, Tony Whiteway, Director, Ryan Wear and Senior Manager, Jenny Pape from the firm’s Lancaster team.
Speaking of the transaction, Rob said: “We were obviously delighted to support Mark and the team throughout another successful transaction, and with more in the pipeline, this looks set to be a very exciting year for the group and its sector. Mark and the team have ambitious plans for the future and as well as leading the transactions, we are also working closely with them to focus on their wider strategy, to ensure the group is positioned to continue its impressive global growth.”
