Notable achievements for the company for 2019 include an increase in turnover of 9% on 2018, continuing a trend which has seen an increase in turnover of almost 50% (48.8%) since 2016. This pattern can be attributed to the boost received from increased e-commerce sales and the fast growth of deals with business-to-business clients (notably, MMI and Takealot). The company expects this trend to continue as confidence grows in the reconditioned hardware space.
Growth and profitability tend to attract competition, but growth is still expected as Universe Direct continues to add more brands and models to the product mix. Growth can also be attributed to its staff's commitment to increased productivity. This works hand in hand with the company's trust vision statement and the monthly profit share for senior staff.
The year 2019 also saw the appointment of Marius Rohlandt as branch manager at the head office in Cape Town. His appointment has brought about an immediate tightening of controls and accuracy of delivery. Rohlandt has focused on after-sales service for warranty turnaround and he has worked towards targets on stock turn.
Michelle Swinerd has joined the buying department and has made an immediate improvement in communication and in reporting to the sales team.
Job descriptions have been reworked in the human resources (HR) space; this was a thankless task that was determinedly tackled by Yvonne Huber in the HR department. While the work was tedious at times, great results ensued that proved to be valuable to both the business and the workforce.
In 2019, Universe Direct added the Apple brand to its list of brands of refurbished equipment. The company now stocks MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, iPad, iPad Air and iPhone. It also stocks a comprehensive range of reconditioned (factory refurbished) Dell, HP, Lenovo and Apple laptops, PCs, tablets, all-in-one computers, along with servers, storage, networking and phones. And models that are not in stock can be sourced with an estimated time of arrival of two to three weeks from the date of deposit.
And in the same vein, the company anticipates change and growth in 2020.
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