History

Inrego - a second hand business story
The 25-year-old students, Henrik Nilsson and Rickard Hannerell are sitting on the patio at the home of Henrik's parents and deleting hard drives in the late summer of Skåne. The year is 1995. They are excited, and a little tense. They will shortly be signing a contract for a shop lease in Lund and start selling used computers to students and others looking for a computer at a good price. If all goes well, if their business concept works, there may be more shops.

They are both highly motivated and want to build up their own business. But if anyone had said that their small company 15 years later would turn over SEK 100 million, have over 50 employees, be the market leader in the handling of used IT equipment, and operate throughout Europe, they would had probably smiled. But only briefly, and they would then move on to think about how their business concept could be developed.

Deathblow for second hand
The company is originally called Combac Data and later Megabyt data before assuming the name Inrego. The shop in Lund and the unconventional second-hand business quickly become a success, it seems there is a desperate need for computers among the students of Lund. During the daytime the two entrepreneurs work in the shop and call companies in search of used computers. In the evenings and at night the computers are ready for a second life.

Business is booming and a new shop opens in Uppsala in 1998. The state now launches the home PC scheme with tax subsidies for newly purchased computers. This proves to be a mortal blow to the second-hand market. Takings drop and Henrik and Rickard are force to look for new avenues. They discover that driving schools are looking to computerise the theoretical knowledge part of the driving test and develop a package deal to suit – the phones are soon ringing off the hook again.
Nothing is sacred

The two businessmen learn a hard business lesson: the market will always change and they must too if they are to survive and make a difference for their customers. The philosophy is written in stone at Inrego or as one employee puts it: "a major part of working here is to question old truths and to come up with improvements. Nothing is sacred.”

The transition to cater for the corporate market requires a different and more structured approach, but the change of course proves successful. The traffic schools are followed by regular schools, and later, municipalities and companies. Sales begin in Denmark and Finland. The company is now headquartered in Stockholm where all handling and logistics are managed.

Top five in Europe
Balancing demand with supply, however, is a constant challenge. Inrego therefore starts buying equipment from other countries. Over time they build a large network of hundreds of suppliers and distributors in 60 countries in Europe and the US. This makes it easier to both buy and sell products - at the right price. In a European industry survey in 2009, Inrego was nominated as one of the five most serious and trustworthy brokers of used IT in Europe.

Today, hundreds of thousands of computers and servers pass through the company. In recent years the business has also evolved from hardware sales to include turnkey solutions and services for IT migrations. Over the past five years, sales have tripled and Inrego has played an important role in building up the market for the responsible, environmentally healthy and safe handling of spent IT equipment.

Inrego has now taken the first steps to create an infrastructure for used IT products throughout Europe. This has never been done before and is a major logistical challenge, but totally in line with Inrego's mission: to minimise the impact of used IT equipment on the environment.