January 2023 ertonline.co.uk


Q&A


Q: So how are your core business activities helping the industry to be more sustainable, and why is this important to AP Taylor? Ross Taylor: We have all seen a huge shift in the last few years where companies are really starting to look at their key responsibilities, and sustainability is the word of the moment; we are trying to help everyone be a bit more environmentally friendly, because if we don’t make changes now the global impact of manufacturing and retailing will be so much more damaging.


So we’ve got the warranty returns part of the business, but on the refurbishment side we work directly with the manufacturers to


store and


despatch products for them and the reason why that’s important is because it saves a lot of miles. We offer a one-stop-shop for our clients; we either buy products from them and sell them on, or we refurb them and send them back to the consumer directly. Normally items will be transported from place to place, but this cuts off two or three parts of the overall journey which contributes towards fewer emissions. Not only that, but all our packaging uses either recycled materials or is reused from original boxes (such as inserts or bubble wrap), and clients are really behind that. It used to be all about the presentation but now the majority are looking for the ‘greenest’ solution that has the most positive impact on the environment.


Q: With many more consumers looking to save money now, do you think the re-sale market will continue to grow in popularity? RT: Absolutely! One of our biggest audience brackets is young professionals – those that are already on the property ladder and are used to ‘one-click’ Amazon-style purchases with next-day delivery, but they know they can get a very similar service from AP Taylor at a significantly reduced percentage of the original price.


The other big chunk of our business is from lower income households; they might only have £40 to spend on a vacuum cleaner, for example, yet they also want the best spec possible. And if a refurb vacuum has a little scratch or a slightly damaged box, they are not concerned by that.


And this way of shopping has gained a lot of


traction in recent years and we often get people landing on our websites waiting for new stock to be uploaded so they can grab themselves a bargain!


Q: So how important is your fault-finding process to ascertain whether an appliance can be re-sold or not? RT: Unfortunately today a consumer’s perception of a fault is completely different to a genuine fault. If a vacuum cleaner stops working, the average person will not know why, and with batteries and chargers for cordless products now, the user’s expectations can sometimes be far different to what’s stated on the box – and this can often lead to returns. If you actually start to look at these kinds of issues you can easily lose yourself in the data. But


AP Taylor’s repair centre near Dunstable


we allow our clients to understand the real reason for a return. We run diagnostic reporting to try and troubleshoot the issue and we collect every bit of information to feed that back in real-time so the manufacturers can go back to the production line and prevent any potential future issues. Our clients are so reliant on this data because they can make real changes that could have a significant impact on the next wave of that product. >>


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