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A new start-up based in Jersey is aiming to bring the 'circular economy' philosophy to the smartphone market to help the environment - and people's wallets.
Swycha buys second-hand phones, before refurbishing them and reselling them to their customers at a discounted price.
"Swycha started in the summer of 2021, and I joined in September,” CEO of the company, Tom Newbald, explains. Prior to joining Swycha, Tom was FeelUnique’s marketing director for eight years.
Feelunique, founded in 2005, is a local company that grew to be one of the largest beauty retailers in Europe. The company is an important part of Swycha’s origin story.
“Aaron Chatterley, one of the founders of Feelunique, pulled together a group of e-commerce specialists to get the project off the ground,” says Tom. The Swycha offices are currently based near the airport on L'Avenue de la Commune, close to the Feelunique headquarters.
Pictured: Tom Newbald, CEO.
A circular economy is an environmentally friendly system which focuses on re-using goods rather than manufacturing news ones and discarding the old. This idea was a key philosophy behind Swycha’s foundation.
“There are many environmental reasons for why people should consider buying a refurbished phone,” says Tom. “For a start, the production of new mobile phones is labour and material-intensive.
“Modern phones also contain a lot of valuable metals, which are finite and scarce. When an old phone is sent to landfill, there is also potential for elements within to contribute to pollution.”
Pictured: When mobile phones end up in landfill, "finite and scarce" materials are lost.
It is important to Tom that people know the difference between a second-hand and refurbished phone.
“When you visit a site like eBay and buy a second-hand phone, there is no guarantee that the data has been sufficiently cleared or if it has been properly unlocked from a particular phone network.”
“At Swycha, we use an external company who run a 108-point inspection process to ensure that phones are properly refurbished,” says Tom. “We also offer 21-day money-back guarantee if customers aren’t happy with their purchase.”
With the cost of living ever-increasing, buying a refurbished phone can also offer significant savings. Discounts compared to paying retail price can reach 50% to 70%, with older models costing less as their value drops off.
Pictured: Swycha currently only import iPhones from the UK, although there are plans to sell other types of mobiles and source phones locally.
Swycha currently only works with iPhones, but they are looking to expand into Android and other mobile phone markets in the future.
Their phone supplies currently come from outside the island, although there are also plans for more to be done locally moving forward.
“Setting up buyback schemes in Jersey and pushing units back into local use is on our roadmap,” says Tom. “As well as the phones available to buy on our website, the Airtel Vodafone store on Castle Street now stock our products too.”
“We have also been to various schools around the island and offered discounts to parents and their children on our phones.”
It is still early days for Swycha, but Tom is looking forward to the future.
“The important point to take away is that we are trying to do something to extend the life of phones, save people money and to try and make a difference to the environment.”
Express recently explored the issues of throwaway culture, refurbishment and the circular economy with 'The Repair Man' Nigel Crespel for the Bailiwick Podcast...
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