Hello again, it’s Ryan Andrews. I am REUZEit’s Chief Innovation Officer and have been an integral part of the company’s overall development selling used lab equipment. Over the past 10+ years, our vision of creating a circular economy through Surplus Asset Management as a service has propelled the company to what it is today. In this blog, I’ll be sharing part 3 of REUZEit’s history and origins series.
The Next Steps Toward Growth
Stacy and I were married in November 2011, and business was good, but not yet flourishing. Justin and I were working hard and increasing our clients and knocking on more doors and territories. With Justin and Becca having a newborn, and Stacy and I getting married, we all sat down to discuss our future and what we could do to ensure success moving forward. The business was supporting us all, but was hard to grow quickly, and with the potential of more little ones coming we had to create some backup plans.
Justin, being Justin, thought that he should seek a new career path, just in case this crazy business did not pan out or wasn’t big enough to support both growing families. My stance? The heck with that pessimism (Justin says “realistic not pessimistic”). We won’t talk about who was right in the end…but let’s just say I am writing this story for a reason. Justin and his family decided to move up to UC Davis, where Justin attended and ultimately graduated with his Master Brewer Degree.
With my innate behavior to prove people wrong, fueled by my habit of showing my older brother what I am made of, I kept plugging away. Justin still ran all the business ends of things for us, from accounting to technical writing, and I was the lone door knocker out there pharming for a little while. After about three months and with some continued success on my end down south, Justin got bored of the school life. He was still committed to eventually finishing it but also hungry to get the company growing. So he hit the biotech streets and started finding some new opportunities for us. It was this logistical decision that could have ended up being the best decision we made.
The Consignment Agreement
Sometime in early 2012 we got a call from a very large client we had both been working on. I had been pestering this client for an opportunity to show them what we could do for them. We got the call to come up to the Bay Area to pick up some used lab equipment with our rental box truck. Justin, already being close in nearby Davis, was able to meet me there easily.
We arrived on-site and were quickly shown the magnitude of the project going on, even though our scope was purely to fill a truck up with their unwanted assets. This client agreed to let us take the equipment under a consignment agreement, a newer idea at the time. We explained to them that they would make much more money if we didn’t have to purchase it up front. We quickly drew up a contact to make sure liability and transparency were upheld. We filled our truck with laboratory equipment, took diligent notes on every asset – the make, model serial, location, the good and the bad – and brought it back down south to our greenhouse warehouse. The week before we had asked our landlord for more space, so he moved his boats and toys out of the other side of the greenhouse. We now had almost 2500 sq ft of warehouse space.
An Innovative Approach to Used Lab Equipment
I won’t go into too many details, but there are typically three main disposition strategies around saleable assets, direct purchase, auction and consignment. Here at REUZEit we take into account the unique needs of each asset, considering a formula of Time, Value and Space.
With the consignment approach, clients are provided the same, ‘get it out of my way solution’ that buying directly lends, but with the advantage of more capital recovery. This is due to the fact that when you buy something upfront you spend much less as it is an investment. The sales cycle for used lab equipment can vary, which means any equipment broker is going to hedge this delay against their offer price and pay fractions of what it will eventually sell for. With consignment, the lab equipment is still removed and out of the way, but since no major investment in purchasing is made, it allows for the client to experience a much higher percentage of the value of each asset.
Stay tuned for the next installment of this origin story!
REUZEit: The All-in-One Solution for Used and Surplus Lab Equipment
Investing in laboratory equipment for your scientific research is a necessary cost, and we’re committed to providing you with options that you can fit into your budget. Money saved on one product can be used to finance another resource that is just as important to your progress. Whether you’re searching for innovative chemistry lab equipment or looking to replace broken lab equipment, REUZEit offers low-cost solutions that work as hard as you do. Browse the best surplus and gently used biotech and pharmaceutical equipment on the market! Check out our USA-based store or our European-based store to shop discount laboratory equipment.
